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ARYAN SUN-MYTHS 
 
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 ARYAN SUN-MYTHS 
 
 THE 
 
 ORIGIN OF RELIGIONS 
 
 d OV7. ^^ 
 
 tf777/ /iiV INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 CHARLES MORRIS 
 
 Author of " A Manual of Classical Literature," and " The 
 Aryan Race : Its Origin and Its Achievements." 
 
 TROY, N.Y. 
 
 NIMS AND KNIGHT 
 
 1889 
 
Copyrighted, 1889, 
 
 By Nims and Knight. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The attention of the writer having been called to 
 the fact that all Indo-Germanic nations have wor- 
 shipped crucified Saviours, an investigation of the sub- 
 ject was made. Overwhelming proof was obtained 
 that the sun-myths of the ancient Aryans were the 
 origin of the religions in all of the countries which 
 were peopled by the Aryans. The Saviours wor- 
 shipped in these lands are personifications of the 
 Sun, the chief god of the Aryans. That Pagan 
 nations worshipped a crucified man, was admitted by 
 the Fathers of the early Christian Church. The holy 
 Father Minucius Felix, in his Ociavius, written as 
 late as a. d. 211, indignantly resents the supposition 
 that the sign of the cross should be considered as 
 exclusively a Christian symbol ; and represents his 
 advocate of the Christian argument as retorting on 
 an infidel opponent thus : " As for the adoration of 
 crosses, which you object to against us, I must tell 
 you that we neither adore crosses nor desire them. 
 You it is, ye Pagans, who worship wooden gods, who 
 
are the most likely people to adore wooden crosses, 
 as being parts of the same substance with your dei- 
 ties. For what else are your ensigns, flags, a^nd 
 standards, but crosses gilt and beautified ? Your 
 victorious trophies not only represent a simple cross, 
 but a cross with a man upon it." TertuUian, a 
 Christian Father of the second and third centuries, 
 writing to the Pagans, says: "The origin of your 
 gods is derived from figures moulded on a cross. 
 All those rows of images on your standards are 
 the appendages of crosses ; those hangings on your 
 standards and banners are the robes of crosses" 
 {Egyptian Belief,^. 217). Arrian, in his History of 
 Alexander^ states that the troops of Porus, in their 
 war with Alexander the Great, carried on their 
 standards the figure of a man. Justin Martyr, in 
 his Dialogue with Trypho, says that there exist 
 not a people, civilized or semi-civilized, who have 
 not offered up prayers in the name of a crucified 
 Saviour to the Father and Creator of all things. 
 Eusebius, the ecclesiastical historian, says that the 
 names of Jesus and Christ were both known and 
 honored among the ancients {Ecd. Hist., lib. i. chap, 
 iv.). We find Saint Paul avowing that he was made 
 a minister of the gospel, which had been preached 
 to every creature under heaven (Col. i. 23). For 
 centuries after the time assigned as the birth of Jesus, 
 
7. 
 
 he was not represented as a man on a cross. The 
 earliest representation of him was as a lamb {^History 
 of our Lord in Art^ Vol. I.) . This custom continued 
 until the pontificate of Agathon (a.d. 608), during 
 the reign of Constantine Pogonatus. By the Sixth 
 Synod of Constantinople (Canon 82), it was ordained 
 that instead of the ancient symbol which had been 
 the lamb, the figure of a man nailed to a cross 
 should be represented. All this was confirmed by 
 Pope Adrian I. (Dupuis's Origin of Religious Belief 
 p. 252 ; also Higgins's Anacalypsis, Vol. II. p. 3). 
 
 The writer makes no claim to originality, except- 
 ing in the arrangement of this work. The endeavor 
 has been simply to condense what has been obtained 
 from other works. 
 
 The original intention was to give a brief sketch, 
 with an appended list of works from which the mate- 
 rial was taken ; but on making an addition to the 
 book it was deemed best to give references. The 
 references for the original sketch will be found at 
 the end of the book. 
 
 The writer has been favored in having an Introduc- 
 tion by one so familiar with the subject as Mr. Charles 
 Morris, author of The Aryan Race. 
 
 Boston, February, 1889. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction ii 
 
 List of Books consulted •. . . 21 
 
 Aryan Sun-Myths the Origin of Religions . . 27 
 
 Appendix A 147 
 
 Appendix B 153 
 
 Appendix C 158 
 
 Appendix D 159 
 
 Appendix E 166 
 
 Appendix F 170 
 
 Reference Notes 179 
 
 Index 189 
 
#^ 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It seems, at first glance, remarkable with 
 what readiness the Teutonic and Celtic tribes 
 dropped their ancestral faiths and accepted 
 Christianity, now through the persuasions of a 
 missionary, now at the bidding of a chief. But 
 a fuller study of the subject renders the unusual 
 ease of this conversion much less surprising, by 
 making it apparent that they rather added the 
 leading dogmas of Christianity to their old 
 faiths than replaced the latter by the former. 
 They ceased to worship Odin and the lesser 
 deities, and began to worship Christ, the Virgin, 
 and the saints ; but they invested the latter with 
 many of the attributes of the former, retained 
 most of their old religious dogmas and cere- 
 monies, and converted primitive Christianity 
 quite as much as they were converted by it. 
 The conversion was, indeed, as much a change 
 of names as of beliefs. Though the ethics of 
 Christianity slowly leavened this swarming mass 
 of barbarism, the theology of the new faith 
 
12 
 
 became so closely interwoven with that of the old 
 that it is not easy to this day to separate them. 
 The nineteenth-century critical study of reli- 
 gious beliefs and the progress of the science of 
 comparative mythology have gone far towards 
 clearing up this mystery of the past, and are 
 leading the way to a science of comparative 
 theology, as students break through the artificial 
 barrier of sacredness which has been raised 
 around this or that system of belief, and dare 
 to question where older students deemed it their 
 duty to adore. It is being more and more 
 widely held that no belief can be sacred, that all 
 faith must rest either upon evidence or blind 
 acceptance, and that they who base their belief 
 upon a study of facts are far superior intel- 
 lectually, and certainly equal morally, to those 
 who accept dogmas upon authority. Faith has 
 been covered with a veil which it was declared 
 impious to lift, and the very word exalted into a 
 kind of magic formula, which was deemed pow- 
 erful enough to move mountains. But what is 
 faith, critically considered? It is either an un- 
 questioning acceptance of the assertions of an- 
 cient books and modern teachers, which the 
 reasoning powers of the individual are auto- 
 cratically forbidden to deal with; or it is a 
 beh'ef reached through doubt and question, 
 
13 
 
 the persistent study of facts and the fullest 
 exercise of the intellect. In the latter case it is 
 the actual belief of the individual ; in the former, 
 the belief of somebody else, which has been 
 instilled into the receptive mind of the disciple, 
 and before whose sacredness every intrusive 
 doubt and irreconcilable fact must bow the 
 head in worship. 
 
 This dogma is a relic of the Dark Ages. It 
 is based upon the general ignorance which pre- 
 vailed in ancient communities and their restful 
 dependence upon the superior learning of their 
 teachers. It is utterly out of accordance with 
 the general education of modern peoples, and 
 the spirit of research which is now everywhere 
 active, and which is far too vigorous to be re- 
 pelled by the highest fence of theological 
 interdict. 
 
 The study of the mythological systems of 
 ancient ;iations has revealed many curious and 
 unlooked-for facts and correspondences. It has 
 been made apparent, in the first place, that those 
 mythologies had their origin in primitive ideas 
 about the movements of the heavenly bodies, 
 the variations of day and night, summer and 
 winter, and other natural phenomena, which 
 were in time, through the modification of human 
 ideas, transformed into the doings of a throng 
 
H 
 
 of deific beings. The worshippers did not know 
 whence came their gods. We, who can ap- 
 proach the subject without prejudice and big- 
 otry, and to whom mythology has ceased to be 
 sacred, can easily trace their origin, and point 
 out nearly every step of their unfold ment. It 
 has become evident, in the second place, that a 
 close affinity exists between the mythological 
 ideas of different and often widely separated 
 countries, the resemblance extending not only 
 to their broader features, but in some cases to 
 their minor details of dogma and belief. This 
 correspondence in belief is undoubtedly due to 
 two causes ; primarily to the fact that the steps 
 of unfoldment of the human intellect and the 
 growth of ideas have been closely similar in all 
 civilizing peoples; and secondly to the inter- 
 course of tribes and nations, and the outflow of 
 ideas over the earth, by the several methods of 
 peaceful interchange of views, warlike conquest 
 and forcible conversion, and propagandism by 
 missionary efforts. These various influences 
 have tended to bring into some degree of con- 
 formity the religious systems not only of 
 Europe, Asia, and Africa, but also those of the 
 Old and the New World, between which some 
 communication very probably existed in ancient 
 times. 
 
IS 
 
 The primary religious ideas of all peoples 
 were undoubtedly much the same. The un- 
 questioned supremacy of the sun among the 
 heavenly bodies, the striking changes to which 
 it was subjected in the variation from day to 
 night, and from summer to winter; its life- 
 .giving beneficence, and its seeming struggle 
 with the demons of storm and cold; not only 
 everywhere exalted this heavenly body into the 
 position of king of the gods in every system of 
 nature-worship, but gave rise to numerous 
 myths, which necessarily in some measure cor- 
 responded, since they were everywhere based on 
 the same phenomena of nature. It is true that 
 nature-worship was not the sole primitive reli- 
 gious conception of mankind. Various other 
 general ideas made their way into and influ- 
 enced systems of belief, prominent among these 
 being the custom of ancestor worship, which 
 widely, perhaps universally, prevailed in de- 
 veloping nations, and exerted a vigorous in- 
 fluence upon unfolding religions. Mythology, 
 however, occupies the most prominent position 
 in the growth of religious beliefs. Ancestral 
 and other systems of worship have influenced 
 religious practice and ceremony to a marked 
 extent, but have had much less to do with the 
 growth of dogma than the intricate details of the 
 
i6 
 
 history of the gods, to which the numerous 
 phenomena of nature gave rise. Over religious 
 belief the sun has exercised a dominant in- 
 fluence, and still faintly yet distinguishably 
 shines through the most opaquely obscure of 
 modern theological dogmas. 
 
 The work to which I am gratified in being 
 requested to append these introductory remarks', 
 is designed to point out in detail the corre- 
 spondences of religious dogma to which I have 
 alluded. How well or ill it does so may be left 
 for readers to decide ; but as a reader having 
 some previous acquaintance with the subject, 
 I should say that it has done so remarkably 
 well, and that it would not be easy to make a 
 stronger, fuller, and clearer presentation of the 
 facts in so limited a space. The subject is one 
 worthy of a much more extended treatment. 
 
 The only bone of contention in the work is 
 its inclusion of the dogmas of Christianity 
 among mythological outgrowths. And yet 
 very few of these dogmas are the direct fruit 
 of Christ's teachings. Very many of them are 
 the work of later theologians, who were in- 
 fluenced both by their own religious education 
 and the demands of their congregations. Chris- 
 tianity arose among the Jews, a people whose 
 religious system had never been strongly myth- 
 
17 
 
 ological, and had become much less so in the 
 course of time. But the new doctrine was not 
 accepted by the Jews. It found its chief con- 
 verts among peoples of Aryan origin, — the 
 Greeks, the Romans, the Teutons, the Celts, 
 etc., — peoples among whom mythology had 
 become extraordinarily developed, and whom 
 it was simply impossible to convert in a mass 
 to radically new ideas. They accepted Christ 
 and his moral teachings, with the skilfully organ- 
 ized church system of the primitive Christians ; 
 but their older mythological belief was not worn 
 as a cloak to be thrown off at will, but was 
 rather a plant whose roots had penetrated to 
 every fibre of their beings, and had become an 
 intimate part of the texture of their minds. It 
 strongly influenced the most learned among 
 them. With the unlearned it continued the 
 prevalent system of belief, and insinuated itself 
 into the dogmas of the new church with a power 
 impossible to resist. It may be repeated that 
 the Christian theology of to-day was not born 
 with Christ and his apostles. Its growth was 
 slow. Traditions arose, partly based on old 
 myths, partly on misconceptions of Christ's life 
 and teachings, which affected even the writers 
 of the several lives of Christ, and more strongly 
 those who were farther removed from Christ. 
 
i8 
 
 From the very start legendary dogmas of myth- 
 ological origin seem to have arisen in the new 
 church, to have become the firm beliefs of 
 congregations, and to have affected the minds 
 of theologians much more than they themselves 
 were aware of. And as the new faith spread 
 through the world, it became more and more 
 imbued with old thought, until mythology be- 
 came the woof of that system of which morality 
 was the warp. 
 
 Christianity, properly considered, is not a 
 system of belief, but a system of ethics. Christ 
 taught no creed. His life was spent in the in- 
 culcation of lofty ideas of morality. The few 
 dogmas which he did assert are full of evidence 
 of the influence of the preceding Hebrew faith, 
 and were doubtless the outcome of his early 
 religious education. Many of his utterances 
 have been tortured into creeds, but few of them 
 bear the interpretations that have been laid 
 upon them. He was a moral teacher, pure and 
 simple, and as an inculcator of moral ideas he 
 stands at the summit of mankind. His teachings 
 are the simplest and loftiest, his life was the 
 noblest and most self-sacrificing, that literature 
 and history present to our gaze. But for the 
 dogmas of Christianity he is not responsible. 
 They grew up after his death, through the slow 
 
19 
 
 years and centuries, under the influence of a 
 host of more ancient ideas and mythological 
 conceptions, and the bulk of them have no more 
 to do with the Christianity taught by Christ than 
 has the mythology of the Aztecs. Christianity 
 was simply thrown into a world seething with 
 religious beliefs and fancies, and could not but 
 take up some accretion of these prevailing ideas, 
 which gathered around it like clouds around the 
 sun. The pure light of Christ's teachings lay 
 within, but was long almost lost in the obscuring 
 doctrine that belief is the essential of virtue, 
 conduct a minor accessory; that lapse from 
 virtue may be readily pardoned, lapse from 
 faith is unpardonable. Such a doctrine has 
 done infinite mischief to the cause of Chris- 
 tianity. Fortunately it is ceasing to prevail. 
 The sun is burning through the clouds, and the 
 example of Christ's life and the loftiness of his 
 precepts are becoming of more value in religion 
 than the creeds advanced by later theologians; 
 and we may look forward with hope to the time 
 in which conduct will become the essential fea- 
 ture of religion, and faith be relegated to its true 
 position in the history of human thought. 
 
 CHARLES MORRIS. 
 
BOOKS 
 
 From which the author has obtained information. 
 
 Anacalypsis G. Higgins, F.R.A.S. 
 
 An Analysis of Egyptian Mythology . /. C. Pritchard, M.D. 
 
 An Analysis of the Historical Records 
 
 of Ancient Egypt J. C. Pritchard, M.D. 
 
 An Analysis of Religious Belief . . . Viscount Amberly. 
 
 Ancient Ecclesiastical History of Soc- 
 rates Scholasticus Trans, by J. Ham- 
 mer, D.D. 
 
 Ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs . . John Kenrick, M.A. 
 
 Ancient Faiths and Modern .... Thomas Inman, M.D. 
 
 Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient 
 
 Names Thomas Inman, M.D. 
 
 Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian 
 
 Symbolism Thomas Inman, M.D. 
 
 Ancient Symbol Worship H. M. Westropp. 
 
 Antiquities of Mexico Lord Kingsborough. 
 
 Antiquities of the Jews Flavius Josephus. 
 
 Asiatic Researches Asiatic Society. 
 
 Assyrian Discoveries George Smith. 
 
 Bell's New Pantheon /. Bell. 
 
 Bible Myths T. William Doane. 
 
 Biographies of Words and the Home 
 
 of the Aryas Max Miiller. 
 
 Buddha and Early Buddhism .... Arthur Lillie. 
 
 Buddhism J. H. Titcomb, D.D. 
 
22 
 
 Chips from a German Workshop . . Max Muller. 
 
 Christianity in China, Tartary, and 
 
 Thibet E. R. Hue. 
 
 Cory's Ancient Fragments of the Phoe- 
 nician, Carthaginian, Babylonian, 
 
 Egyptian, and other Authors . . . Cory. 
 
 Curious Myths of the Middle Ages . Rev. S. Baring-Gould. 
 
 Darwinism in Morals Frances P. Cobbe. 
 
 Eastern Monachism R. Spence Hardy. 
 
 Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought . James Bonwick. 
 
 Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian 
 
 Christianity Samuel Sharpe. 
 
 Encyclopaedia Britannica Ninth edition. 
 
 Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature . Thomas H. Huxley, 
 
 F.RS., F.L.S. 
 
 Fairy Tales: Their Origin and Meaning J. T. Bunce. 
 
 Fusang Charles G. Leland. 
 
 God in History C. K. von fiunsen. 
 
 Hebrew and Christian Records . . . J. A. Giles. 
 
 Hinduism Monier Williams, M. A. 
 
 History of Ancient Sanscrit Litera- 
 ture Max Miiller. 
 
 History of China Thomas Thornton. 
 
 History of Cornelius Tacitus . . . . C. Tacitus. 
 
 History of Herodotus Herodotus. 
 
 History of Hindostan Thomas Maurice. 
 
 History of our Lord in Art .... Mrs. Jameson and 
 
 Lady Eastlake. 
 
 History of the Conflict between Religion 
 
 and Science J- W. Draper, D D 
 
 History of the Conquest of Mexico , . W. H. Prescott. 
 
 History of the Decline and Fall of the 
 
 Roman Empire Edward Gibbon. 
 
 History of the Doctrine of the Deity of 
 
 Jesus Christ Albert Reville. 
 
23 
 
 India, Ancient and Modern .... Rev. D. O. Allen. 
 
 India, What can it Teach us? ... Max Miiller. 
 
 Indian Antiquities Thomas Maurice. 
 
 Indian Wisdom Monier William s,AI.A, 
 
 Koran Trans, by G. Sale. 
 
 Lectures on the History of the Jewish 
 
 Church Dean Stanley. 
 
 Lectures on the Origin and Growth of 
 
 Religion Max Miiller. 
 
 Lectures on the Origin and Growth of 
 
 Religion P. Le Page Renouf. 
 
 Lectures on the Pentateuch and Moab- 
 
 ite Stone J- W. Colenso, D.D. 
 
 Lectures on the Science of Language . Max Miiller. 
 
 Life and Religion of the Hindoos . . J. C. Gangooly. 
 
 Man's Earliest History Richard Owen. 
 
 Manual of Buddhism R. S. Hardy. 
 
 Manual of Mythology Alex. S. Murray. 
 
 Monumental Christianity J- P- Lnndy. 
 
 Mysteries of Adoni S. F. Dunlap. 
 
 Mythology among the Hebrews . . . Igjiaz Goldziher. 
 
 Mythology of Ancient Greece and Italy T. Keightley. 
 
 Mythology of the Aryan Nation . . . Sir George IV. Cox. 
 
 Myths and Myth-Makers John Fiske. 
 
 Myths and Rites of the British Druids Edwin J. Davis. 
 
 Myths of the Middle Ages Rev. S. Baring-Gould. 
 
 Myths of the New World Daniel Brinton. 
 
 New Researches in Ancient History . C. F. Volncy. 
 
 Northern Antiquities P. H. Mallet. 
 
 Oriental Religions Samuel Johnson. 
 
 Persia Frederick Shoberl. 
 
 Prehistoric Times Sir John Lubbock. 
 
 Primitive Culture Edivard Burnett Tylor. 
 
 Prolegomena of the History of Re- 
 ligion Albert R hi lie. 
 
24 
 
 Religions of India Auguste Barth. 
 
 Researches into the Early History of 
 
 Mankind E. B. Tylor. 
 
 Rgya Cher-rol-pa, Thibetan version of 
 
 the Sanskrit Lalita-vistara .... Foiicaux {Ed.). 
 
 Rig-Veda-Sanhita Max Miiller, 
 
 Roman Antiquities C K. Dillaway. 
 
 Sod, the Son of the Man S. F. Dtmlap. 
 
 Tales of Ancient Greece Sir George W. Cox. 
 
 Taylor's Fragments Charles Taylor. 
 
 The Ancient City F. G. Colanges. 
 
 The Angel -Messiah of Buddhists, Es- 
 
 senes, and Christians Ernest de Bunsen. 
 
 The Aryan Race Charles Morris. 
 
 The Celtic Druids G. Higgins, F K.A.S. 
 
 The Chaldean Account of Genesis . . George Smith. 
 
 The Chinese J. F. Davis. 
 
 The Christ of Paul George Reber. 
 
 The Descent of Man Charles Darwin. 
 
 The Devil : his Origin, Greatness, and 
 
 Decadence Albert Riville. 
 
 The Diogesis Robert Taylor. 
 
 The Epistle of Polycarp to the Phi- 
 
 lippians Trans, by Wake. 
 
 The Essenes CD. Ginsburg, LL.D. 
 
 The First Book of Hermas .... Hernias. 
 
 The Gnostics and their Remains . . . C W. King, M.A. 
 
 The Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus 
 
 Christ Apocryphal. 
 
 The Great Cities of the Ancient World T. A. Buckley. 
 
 The Heathen Religion J. P. Gross. 
 
 The Legend of Samson H. Steinthal. 
 
 The Legends and Theories of the 
 
 Buddhists R. S. Hardy. 
 
 The Life of Christ F. W. Farrar. ' 
 
25 
 
 The Life of Constantine Eusebms. 
 
 The Life of Jesus Critically Examined David Strauss. 
 
 The Light of Asia Edwin Arnold. 
 
 The Lily of Israel VAbbe Gerbet. 
 
 The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth . Dr. I. M Wise. 
 
 The Origin and Development of Re- 
 ligious Belief Rev. S. Baring-Gould. 
 
 The Origin of All Religious Worship . Charles F. Dupuis. 
 
 The Poems of iEschylus Tr. by R. Potter, M.A, 
 
 The Principles of Sociology .... Herbert Spencer. 
 
 The Protevangelion ....... Protevangelion Apoc. 
 
 The Races of Man Oscar Peschel. 
 
 The Religion of the Ancient Greeks . Septchenes. 
 
 The Religions of the World . . . . P'. D. Maurice. 
 
 The Rosicrucians H. Jennings. 
 
 The Sacred Anthology M. D. Conway. 
 
 The Science of Religion Max Milller. 
 
 The Secret of the East Felix L. Oswald. 
 
 The Serpent Symbol E. G. Squire. 
 
 The Stratification of Language . . . Max Miiller. 
 
 The Symbolical Language of Ancient 
 Art and Mythology R. P. Knight. 
 
 The Vishnu Purana Trans, by H. H. Wilson, 
 
 Travels in* Georgia, Persia, etc. . . . Sir R. K. Porter. 
 
 Tree and Serpent Worship .... James Fergusson,F.R.S. 
 
 Types of Mankind S. G. Morton. 
 
 Upani shads Trans, by Max Miiller. 
 
 Vestiges of the Spirit-History of Man S. F. Dunlap. 
 
asiT 
 
 ARYAN SUN-MYTHS 
 THE ORIGIN OF RELIGIONS. 
 
 The results obtained from the examination of lan- 
 guage in its several forms leaves no room for doubt, 
 Max Miiller tells us, that there was a stage, in the 
 history of human speech, during which the ab- 
 stract words in constant use among ourselves were 
 utterly unknown, when men had formed no notions 
 of virtue or prudence, of thought and intellect, of 
 slavery or freedom, but spoke only of the man who 
 was strong, who could point the way to others and 
 choose one thing out of many, of the man who was 
 not bound to any other, and able to do as he 
 pleased. 
 
 Language without words denoting abstract quali- 
 ties implies a condition of thought in which men 
 were only awakening to a sense of the objects which 
 surrounded them, and points to a time when the 
 world was to them full of strange sights and sounds, 
 — some beautiful, some bewildering, some terrific; 
 when, in short, people knew little of themselves be- 
 yond the vague consciousness of existence, and 
 nothing of the phenomena of the world without. 
 
 In such a state they could but attribute to all 
 
28 
 
 that they saw or touched or heard, a life which was 
 Hke their own in its consciousness, its joys, and its 
 sufferings. The varying phases of that Hfe were 
 therefore described as truthfully as human feelings 
 or sufferings, and hence every phase became a pict- 
 ure, which remained intelligible as long as the con- 
 ditions remained unchanged. In time, however, the 
 conditions were changed. Men advanced in knowl- 
 edge and civilization, and no longer thought of 
 nature as possessing life and consciousness like 
 their own. 
 
 In ancient times there lived, it is supposed on the 
 highest elevation of Central Asia, a noble race of 
 men, called the Aryan. Speaking a language not 
 yet Sanskrit, Greek, or German, but containing the 
 dialects of all, this clan which had advanced to a 
 state of agricultural civilization had recognized 
 the bonds of blood, and sanctioned the bonds of 
 marriage. That they worshipped Nature, — the 
 sun, moon, sky, earth, — a comparison of ancient 
 religions and mythology in the lands peopled by 
 Aryans^ demonstrates. Their chief object of adora- 
 tion was the Sun. To this race, in the infancy of its 
 civilization, the Sun was not a mere luminary, but a 
 Creator, Ruler, Preserver, and Saviour of the world. 
 
 As there could be no life or vegetation without 
 light, the Sun, as a light-bringer, becomes Creator, 
 and if Creator, then Ruler of the world — the 
 Father of all things. In driving away the dark- 
 ness, and likewise in fertilizing the earth, the Sun 
 
29 
 
 becomes the preserver and kind protector of all 
 living things— the Saviour of mankind. As the Sun 
 sometimes scorches and withers vegetation and dries 
 up the rivers, he was conceived of as a Destroyer 
 also. As Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer the Sun 
 was three persons in one — the Trinity. 
 
 It is very hard for man at the present day to real- 
 ize the feelings with which the first dwellers on 
 earth looked upon the Sun. " Think of man," says 
 Professor Miiller, "at the dawn of time. . . . Was 
 not the sunrise to him the first wonder, the first be- 
 ginning to him of all reflection, all thought, all phi- 
 losophy ? Was it not to him the first revelation, the 
 first beginning of all trust, of all religion ? " 
 
 The Aryans looked up to the sky and gave it the 
 name of Dyaus, from a root-word which means to 
 shine; When, out of the forces and forms of nature, 
 they fashioned other gods, this name of Dyaus be- 
 came Dyaus Pitar, — the Heaven-Father, or All- 
 Father. The earth they worshipped as the Mother 
 of All. 
 
 They said that the Sun was the Son of the Sky, or 
 the Heaven-Father, and that the immaculate virgin, 
 the Earth (sometimes it was the dawn or the night), 
 was the Mother of the Sun. Hence we have the 
 Virgin, or Virgo, as one of the signs of the zodiac. 
 
 As the Sun begins its apparent annual northward 
 journey on the twenty-fifth of December, this day 
 was said to be his birthday, and was observed with 
 great rejoicings. On this day the sign of the Virgin 
 
30 
 
 is rising on the eastern horizon, the Sun having 
 reached the winter solstice. 
 
 The division of the first decan of the Virgin rep- 
 resents a beautiful immaculate virgin with flowing 
 hair, sitting in a chair, with two ears of corn in her 
 hand, and suckling an infant called lesus (Jesus in 
 Latin), by some nations, and Christ in Greek (from 
 the Greek Christos, — an Anointed One, a Messiah). 
 This infant denotes the Sun, which at the moment 
 of the winter solstice, precisely when the Persian 
 magi drew the horoscope of the new year, was placed 
 on the bosom of the Virgin. (See Appendix A.) 
 
 The zodiacal sign of Aries was anciendy known 
 as the Lamb; consequently, when the Sun made the 
 transit of the equinox under this sign, it was called 
 the Lamb of God. 
 
 The birth of the Sun was said to be heralded by a 
 star — the Morning-star, which rises immediately 
 before the Virgin and her Child. As the Sun 
 appears to start from a dark abode, it was said that 
 he was born in a cave, or dungeon, and the splen- 
 dor of the morning sky was said to be the halo 
 around his cradle. As the Sun scatters the dark- 
 ness, it was said that he would be the destroyer of 
 the reigning monarch, Night. Warned of this peril 
 by oracles, Night tries to prevent the birth of the 
 Sun, and, failing in that, seeks to take his life. For 
 this reason it is said that the Sun is left on the bare 
 hillside to perish, as he seemingly rests on the earth 
 at his rising. He meets with temptations on his 
 
31 
 
 course, is beset by foes, clouds of storm and dark- 
 ness; but, in the struggle which ensues, he is con- 
 queror, the gloomy army, broken and rent, is scat- 
 tered. The daughters of his foes, the last light 
 vapors which float in the heavens, try in vain to 
 clasp and retain him, but he disengages himself 
 from their embraces ; and, as he repulses them, they 
 writhe, lose their form and vanish. Temptations to 
 sloth and luxury are offered him in vain ; he has 
 work to do, and nothing can stay him from doing it. 
 He travels over many lands, and toils for the benefit 
 of others ; he does hard service for a mean and cruel 
 generation. He is constantly in company with his 
 Twelve Apostles — the twelve signs of the zodiac. 
 
 As he approaches midsummer, he appears in all 
 his splendor, he has reached the summit of his 
 career ; henceforth his power diminishes, and he 
 meets with an early and a violent death, from which 
 there is no escape. When the extreme southern 
 limit of his course is reached, his enemies — dark- 
 ness and cold, which have sought in vain to wound 
 him — win the victory. The bright Sun of summer 
 is slain, crucified in the heavens, and pierced by the 
 spear (thorn, or arrow) of winter. He who has per- 
 formed such marvellous miracles, healing the sick 
 and raising the dead, cannot save himself; a stern 
 fate decrees that he must die an ignominious death. 
 
 As the Sun wakens the earth to life after the long 
 sleep of winter is passed, it was said that he raised 
 the dead. He is crucified, with outstretched arms in 
 
32 
 
 the heavens, — outstretched to bless the world he 
 is trying to save from the terror of darkness, — to 
 the tree, or cross. It was an ancient custom to use 
 trees as gibbets for crucifixion, or, if artificial, to 
 call the cross a tree, the tree being one of the sym- 
 bols of nature-worship, which denoted the fructify- 
 ing power of the Sun. The Sun crucified was the 
 Sun in winter, when his fructifying power is gone. 
 
 Before the Sun dies he sees all his disciples — 
 his retinue of light, the twelve hours of the day or 
 the twelve months of the year — disappear in the 
 sanguinary ;«^/^^ of the clouds of evening; but the 
 tender mother and the fair maidens he has loved — 
 the beautiful lights which flush the eastern sky as 
 the Sun sinks in the west — remain with him till 
 the last. Their tears are the tears of dew. At his 
 death there is darkness over all the land. He 
 descends into Hell, or Hades. In ancient times 
 Hell, or Hades, was a place neither of reward nor 
 punishment, but was simply the home of the dead, 
 good and bad alike, the word primarily signifying 
 nothing more than the hollow grave, hole, pit, cav- 
 ern, or other receptacle which receives the dead. 
 By the Aryans, Hades was supposed to be in the far 
 west, which to them was always the region of dark- 
 ness and death, as the east was of light and life. 
 On the twenty-second of December the Sun enters 
 the sign Capricornus, or the Goat, and appears to 
 remain in the same place for three days and three 
 nights, and then begins to ascend. This was said 
 
33 
 
 to be the resurrection of the Sun from Hades or the 
 grave. At the vernal equinox, at Easter, the Sun 
 has been below the equator and suddenly rises 
 above it. It rises triumphant over the powers of 
 darkness and cold. The resurrection of the Sun 
 was generally celebrated on the twenty-fifth of 
 March, when the return of spring may be said to be 
 the result of the return of the Sun, from the lower 
 or far-off regions to which it had departed. 
 
 There were numerous symbols which were held 
 as sacred to the Sun, the most common being the 
 fish, the lamb, the cross, and the serpent. The Ser- 
 pent was an emblem of the Sun, when represented 
 with his tail in his mouth, thus forming a circle. He 
 was an emblem of eternity, when represented as 
 casting off his skin ; but when represented with his 
 deadly sting, he was an emblem of evil. When 
 represented as crucified on the tree (cross), the Ser- 
 pent denoted the Sun in winter, when it has lost its 
 fructifying power. 
 
 The Aryans observed various rites and ceremonies, 
 among them being Baptism and the sacrament of the 
 Eucharist. Indeed, the doctrine of Transubstanti- 
 ation is one of the most ancient of doctrines. Bap- 
 tism was held to be a regenerating rite ; and rivers, 
 as sources of fertility and purification, were at an 
 early date invested with a sacred character. Every 
 great river was supposed to be permeated with the 
 divine essence, and its waters held to cleanse from 
 moral guilt and contamination. 
 
 
34 
 
 The doctrines of Original Sin and the Fallen 
 Condition of Man were not unknown to the primi- 
 tive Aryan, who, in order to propitiate his gods, 
 atone for sins, or avert calamities, offered sacrifices 
 to them. When men lived mostly on vegetables, 
 they offered grain, salt, fruits, water, and flowers ; 
 but when they began to eat meat and spices, and 
 drink wine, they offered these also, — naturally sup- 
 posing that the gods would be pleased with whatever 
 was useful or agreeable to men. 
 
 In the course of time it began to be imagined 
 that the gods demanded something more sacred as 
 offerings, or atonements, for sin. This led to the 
 sacrifice of human beings, at first of slaves and 
 those taken in war, and finally of their own children, 
 even their most beloved and first-born. It came to 
 be an idea that every sin must have its prescribed 
 amount of punishment, and that the gods would 
 accept the life of one person in atonement for the 
 sins of others. From this arose a belief in the 
 redemption from sin by the sufferings of a Divine 
 Incarnation, by death on the cross, or otherwise. 
 
 Branches of the Aryan race migrated to the east 
 and to the west. One of the offshoots, at the west, 
 founded the Persian kingdom; another built Athens 
 and Lacedasmon, and became the Greek nation ; a 
 third went on to Italy, and reared the city on the 
 seven hills, which grew into imperial Rome. A dis- 
 tant colony of the same race excavated the silver 
 mines of prehistoric Spain ; and the first glimpse at 
 
35 
 
 ancient England reveals Aryan descendants fishing 
 in willow canoes. Germany also was peopled by 
 the Aryans. Meanwhile other bands of Aryans 
 had gone forth, from the primitive home in Central 
 Asia, to the seacoast. Powerful bands found their 
 way through the passes of the Himalayas into the 
 Punjab, and spread themselves, chiefly as Brahmans 
 and Rajputs, over India. 
 
 Wherever the Aryans went, the sun-myths went with 
 them, and appeared in the course of time, after their 
 origin was forgotten, as the groundwork of religions, 
 epic poems, folk-lore, and nursery tales. Out of 
 these myths were shaped by degrees innumerable 
 gods and demons of the Hindoos ; the devs and jins 
 of the Persians ; the great gods, the minor deities, 
 the nymphs and fauns and satyrs, of Greek mythol- 
 ogy and poetry ; the stormy divinities, the giants and 
 trolls, of the cold and rugged north ; the dwarfs of 
 German forests ; the elves who dance merrily in the 
 moonlight of an English summer ; the " good peo- 
 ple " who play mischievous tricks upon stray peasants 
 among the Irish hills; fairies and gods and heroes. 
 
 Almost all that we have of legend comes to us 
 from our Aryan forefathers — sometimes scarcely 
 changed, sometimes so altered that the links be- 
 tween the old and new have to be puzzled out ; but 
 all these myths and traditions, when we come to 
 know the meaning of them, take us back to the time 
 when the Aryans dwelt together in the high lands 
 of Central Asia ; and they all mean the same things 
 
36 
 
 — that is, the relation between the Sun and the 
 earth, the succession of day and night, of summer 
 and winter, of storm and calm, of cloud and tempest, 
 of golden sunshine and bright blue sky. 
 
 A few of the Aryan nations have preserved in 
 their ancient poetry some remnants of the natural 
 awe with which the earlier dwellers on the earth saw 
 the brilliant sun "slowly rise from out the darkness 
 of the night, raising itself by its own might higher 
 and higher, till it stood triumphant on the arch of 
 heaven, and then descended and sank down in its 
 fiery glory, into the dark abyss of the heaving and 
 hissing sea." One of these nations is the Hindoo. 
 In the hymns of the Veda the poet still wonders 
 whether the Sun will rise again ; and asks how he 
 can climb the vault of heaven, why he does not 
 fall back, why there is no dust on his path. 
 
 It is to these Vedic hymns — written, it is said, 
 from one thousand to fifteen hundred years before 
 the Christian era — that we must go for the develop- 
 ment which changes the Sun from a mere luminary 
 into a Creator, Preserver, Ruler, and Rewarder of 
 the world — in fact, into a Divine or Supreme Being. 
 These hymns contain the germ-story of the Virgin- 
 born God and Saviour, the great benefactor of man- 
 kind, who is finally put to death, and rises again to 
 life and immortality on the third day. 
 
 In the Sanskrit Dictionary, compiled more than 
 two thousand years ago, we find a full account of the 
 incarnate deity Vishnu, who appeared in human form 
 
37 
 
 as Crishna. Vishnu, being moved to relieve the 
 earth of her load of misery and sin, came down 
 from heaven, and was born of the virgin Devaki, on 
 the twenty-fifth of December. (See Note i.) 
 
 His birth was announced in the heavens by his 
 star, and a chorus of Devatas celebrated, with song, 
 the praise of Devaki. " The spirits and nymphs of 
 heaven danced and sang; and at midnight, when 
 the Support of All was born, the clouds emitted low, 
 pleasing sounds, and poured down rain of flowers." 
 
 Though of royal descent (he was of the Yadava 
 line, the oldest and noblest of India) he was born 
 in a cave, his mother being on a journey with his 
 foster-father, on their way to the city, to pay his 
 yearly tribute or tax to the king. 
 
 At Crishna's birth the cave was brilliantly illu- 
 minated, and the faces of his father and mother 
 emitted rays of glory. 
 
 The divine child was recognized by cowherds, 
 who prostrated themselves before him. He was 
 received with divine honors, and presented with 
 gifts of sandal-wood and perfumes. Soon after his 
 birth he was visited by the holy prophet Nared, 
 who had heard of the fame of the infant. Nared 
 examined the stars, and declared Crishna to be of 
 celestial descent. 
 
 Crishna's foster-father was warned by a heavenly 
 voice to fly with the child to Gokul, across the 
 River Jumna, as the reigning monarch, Kansa, 
 sought his life. When the River Jumna was 
 
38 
 
 reached, the waters respectfully retired on each 
 side, to make way for the transportation of the 
 child. On the most ancient Hindoo temples are 
 sculptured representations of the flight at midnight, 
 with the infant saviour Crishna. 
 
 In order to destroy Crishna, Kansa ordered the 
 massacre of all the male infants born in his realm 
 during the night on which Crishna was born. The 
 story of the slaughtered infants is the subject of an 
 immense sculpture in the cave-temple of Elephanta. 
 The flat roof of this cavern-temple, and every other 
 circumstance connected with it, proves that its origin 
 must be referred to a very remote epoch, hundreds 
 of years before our era. 
 
 Crishna was preceded by Rama, who was born a 
 short time before his birth and whose life was also 
 sought by Kansa. 
 
 It is said that Crishna astonished his teachers by 
 his precocious wisdom. Various miracles are related 
 as occurring in his childhood, some of them being 
 similar to those related of the childhood of Jesus 
 Christ in the Apocryphal New Testament. 
 
 One of Crishna's first miracles, in his maturity, 
 was the healing of a leper. He restored the maimed, 
 the deaf, and the blind; he healed the sick and 
 raised the dead ; he supported the weak against the 
 strong, and the oppressed against the powerful. The 
 Hindoo sacred books teem with accounts of the 
 miracles he performed. The people crowded his 
 path and adored him as a god. 
 
39 
 
 He had twelve favorite disciples who accompanied 
 him on his missionary travels. 
 
 At one time a poor lame woman came with a ves- 
 sel filled with spices, sweet-scented oils, sandal- 
 wood, saffron, civet, and other perfumes, and, 
 making a sign on Crishna's forehead, poured the 
 contents of the vessel upon his head. 
 
 He was in constant strife with the Evil One in 
 the early part of his ministry ; but he overcame the 
 Tempter, and is represented as bruising the head of 
 the serpent and standing upon him. 
 
 " He was the meekest and best-tempered of 
 beings." " He preached very nobly and sub- 
 limely. He was pure and chaste in reality ; and, as 
 a lesson of humility, he even condescended to wash 
 the feet of the Brahmans." 
 
 Crishna had a beloved disciple, Arjuna, before 
 whom he was transfigured, and to whom he said : 
 " Whate'er thou dost perform, whate'er thou eatest, 
 whate'er thou givest to the poor, whate'er thou 
 offerest in sacrifice, whate'er thou doest as an act 
 of holy presence, do all as if to me, O Arjuna. I 
 am the great Sage, without beginning; I am the 
 Ruler and the All-sustainer." 
 
 Again he said : " Then be not sorrowful ; from all 
 thy sins I will deliver thee. Think thou on me, 
 have faith in me, adore and worship me, and join 
 thyself in meditation to me ; thus shalt thou come to 
 me, O Arjuna ; thus shalt thou rise to my supreme 
 abode, where neither sun nor moon hath need to 
 
40 
 
 shine, for know that all the lustre they possess is 
 mine." " I am the cause of the whole universe ; 
 through me it is created and dissolved ; on me all 
 things within it hang and suspend, like pearls upon 
 a string." *' I am the light in the sun and moon, far, 
 far beyond the darkness. I am the brilliancy in 
 flame, the radiance in all that's radiant, and the 
 light of Rghts." "I am the sustainer of the world, 
 its friend and Lord ; I am its way and refuge." " I 
 am the Goodness of the good ; I am Beginning, 
 Middle, End, Eternal Time, the Birth, the Death of 
 All." 
 
 Crishna was crucified, and is represented with 
 arms extended, hanging on a cross, the nail-prints 
 being visible in hands and feet, and with the spear- 
 wound in his side. One account speaks of him as 
 having been shot in the foot with an arrow, by a 
 hunter, who afterwards says to him : " Have pity 
 upon me, who am consumed by my crime, for thou 
 art able to consume me." Crishna replies : " Fear 
 not thou in the least. Go, hunter, through my 
 favor, to heaven, the abode of the gods." 
 
 Crishna descended into Hell. In three days he 
 rose from the dead and ascended bodily into heaven. 
 All men saw him, and exclaimed, " Lo ! Crishna's 
 soul ascends his native skies ! " 
 
 At his death there came calamities and omens of 
 every kind. A black circle surrounded the moon, the 
 sun was darkened at noonday ; the sky rained fire 
 and ashes ; flames burned dusky and livid ; demons 
 
41 
 
 committed depredations on earth ; at sunrise and 
 sunset thousands of figures were seen skirmishing 
 in the sky, and spirits were observed on all sides. 
 
 Crishna was the second person in the Hindoo 
 Trinity, "the very supreme Brahma; though it be a 
 mystery how the Supreme should assume the form 
 of man." 
 
 Vishnu is to come again on earth, in the latter 
 days, and will appear as an armed warrior, riding a 
 winged white horse. At his approach the sun and 
 moon will be darkened, the earth will tremble, and 
 the stars fall from the firmament. He is to be 
 Judge of the dead, at the last day. 
 
 Devaki, the virgin mother of Crishna, was also 
 called Aditi, which, in the Rig- Veda, is the name for 
 the Dawn. Thus the legend is explained. Devaki 
 is Aditi ; Aditi is the Dawn ; the Dawn is the Virgin 
 Mother ; and the Saviour of mankind, who is born 
 of Aditi, is the Sun. Indra, worshipped in some 
 parts of India as a crucified god, is represented in 
 the Vedic hymns as the son of Dahana, who is 
 Daphne, a personification of the dawn. 
 
 As the Sun and all the solar deities rise in the east, 
 it is no cause of wonder that Aditi, the Dawn, came 
 to be called the Mother of the Bright Gods, the 
 Virgin Mother who gave Birth to the Sun, the 
 Mother with Powerful, Terrible, with Royal Sons. 
 
 Statues of Crishna are to be found in the very 
 oldest cave-temples throughout India, and it has 
 been proved satisfactorily, on the authority of a 
 
42 
 
 passage of Arrian, that the worship of Crishna was 
 practised in the time of Alexander the Great, in a 
 temple which still remains one of the jnost famous 
 in India, — that of Mathura, on the Jumna River. 
 
 Crishna was deified about the fourth century B. C, 
 but the general outline of his history began, we are 
 told, with the time of Homer, nine-hundred years 
 B. C, or more than a hundred years before Isaiah is 
 said to have lived and prophesied. From the date 
 of the second century before our era, the story of 
 Crishna was the subject of dramatic representations 
 similar to those connected with the festivals held in 
 honor of Bacchus. 
 
 The myths which crystallized around the name of 
 Crishna are found in the very earliest Vedic literature, 
 associated with other gods. Indeed, the Hindoos 
 have had twenty-four Avatars, or Divine Incarna- 
 tions. " Every time," as Vishnu is represented as 
 saying in the Bhagavad Gita (the Song of the Most 
 High), "that religion is in danger and that iniquity 
 triumphs, I issue forth for the defence of the good 
 and the suppression of the wicked ; for the establish- 
 ment of justice I manifest myself from age to age." 
 The incarnation of Vishnu is not a transitory mani- 
 festation of the deity, but the presence, at once 
 mystic and real, of the Supreme Being in a human 
 individual, who is both truly God and truly man ; 
 and this intimate union of the two natures is con- 
 ceived of as surviving the death of the individual in 
 whom it was realized. 
 
43 
 
 Crishna had the titles of Saviour, Redeemer, Pre- 
 server, Comforter, and Mediator. He was called 
 the Resurrection and the Life, the Lord of Lords, the 
 Great God, the Holy One, the Good Shepherd. 
 
 The Evil One, the Serpent, or Satan, who figures 
 so conspicuously in the sun-myths, is simply the dark 
 and stormy cloud — the enemy of the Sun — person- 
 ified, the Hindoo Rakshasas of our Aryan ancestors. 
 The cloudy shape has assumed a thousand different 
 forms, horrible or grotesque and ludicrous, to suit 
 the changing fancies of the ages. ■ The god of one 
 nation became the devil of another. 
 
 The word devil^ when traced to its primitive 
 source, is found to be a name of the Supreme Being. 
 The Aryan Bhaga (Persian, Baga), who is described 
 in a commentary of the Rig- Veda as the Lord of Life, 
 the Giver of Bread, and the Bringer of Happiness, 
 has become the Bogie, or Bug-a-boo, or Bugbear, of 
 nursery lore. The same name which suggests the 
 supreme majesty of deity, to the Vedic poet, to the 
 Persian of the time of Xerxes, and to the modern 
 Russian, is in English associated with an ugly and 
 ludicrous fiend. 
 
 The Hindoos held that there is a subtile, invisible 
 body within the material body. They represent the 
 constitution of man as consisting of three principles : 
 the soul, the invisible body, and the material body. 
 The invisible body they call the ghost or shade, and 
 consider it as the material portion of the soul. 
 
 It appears that thinking men, while as yet on a low 
 
44 
 
 level of culture, were deeply impressed by two groups 
 of biological problems. In the first place : What is 
 it that makes the difference between a living and a 
 dead person? What causes waking, sleep, trance, 
 disease, death ? In the second place : What are 
 those human shapes which appear in dreams and 
 visions ? " Looking at the two groups of phenom- 
 ena, the ancient savage philosophers," says Edward 
 Burnett Tylor, "practically made each help to 
 account for the other, by combining both in a con- 
 ception which we may call an apparitional-soul, 
 a ghost-soul." To the savage, dreams possess a 
 reality which a civilized man can scarcely appre- 
 ciate. During sleep the spirit seems to desert the 
 body ; and as in dreams other localities and even 
 other worlds appear to be visited, a part of the 
 person seems to the savage to possess a separate 
 existence. The savage believes the events in his 
 dreams to be as real as those of his waking hours, 
 and hence he naturally feels that he has a spirit 
 which can quit the body. 
 
 The Hindoos believe in a Triune God : Brahma, 
 the Father; Vishnu, the Son; and Siva, the De- 
 stroyer. (See Note 2.) 
 
 As man advanced in knowledge, and became 
 aware of the fact that the Sun, although he appears 
 to destroy, does not in reality, but reconstructs and 
 regenerates the earth, the third person of the Trinity 
 was said to be the Holy Spirit, and was symbolized 
 by the dove. The second person of the Trinity 
 
45 
 
 came to be called the Word, — wisdom, or Logos, 
 in the Greek. 
 
 Brahmanism from the very earliest times had its 
 initiatory rites, which included baptism both by im- 
 mersion and sprinkling. Infant baptism was prac- 
 tised, the sign of the cross being used, and a name 
 being given to the child at that time. The symbols 
 held as sacred by the Brahmans — the cross, ser- 
 pent, dove, mitre, crosier, triangle, tripod, trefoil, 
 key, fish, and sacred heart, — are now venerated 
 by Christians, while the teachings of Brahmanism 
 are very similar to the familiar teachings of the New 
 Testament. The following precepts are from Mahab- 
 harata, an Indian epic poem, written many centuries 
 before the Christian era : — 
 
 Conquer a man who never gives by gifts; sub- 
 due an untruthful man by truthfulness ; vanquish an 
 angry man by gentleness ; and overcome the evil 
 man by goodness. 
 
 To injure none by thought or word or deed, to 
 give to others and be kind to all — this is the con- 
 stant duty of the good. High-minded men delight 
 in doing good, without a thought of their own inter- 
 est; when they confer a benefit on others, they 
 reckon not on favors in return. 
 
 Two men will hereafter be exalted above the 
 heavens — the man with boundless power, who yet 
 
46 
 
 forbears to use it indiscreetly, and he who is not 
 rich, and yet can give. 
 
 Just heaven is not so pleased with costly gifts, 
 offered in hopes of future recompense, as with the 
 merest trifle set apart from honest gains and sancti- 
 fied by faith. 
 
 To curb the tongue, and moderate the speech, is 
 held to be the hardest of all tasks. The words of 
 him who talks too volubly have neither substance 
 nor variety. 
 
 Even to foes, who visit us as guests, due hospi- 
 tality should be displayed ; the tree screens with its 
 leaves the man who fells it. 
 
 Before infirmities creep o'er thy flesh, before de- 
 cay impairs thy strength and mars the beauty of thy 
 limbs, — before the Ender, whose charioteer is Sick- 
 ness, iiastes towards thee, breaks up thy fragile 
 frame, and ends thy life, — lay up the only treasure ; 
 do good deeds ; practise sobriety and self-control ; 
 amass that wealth which thieves cannot abstract, nor 
 tyrants seize, which follows thee at death, which 
 never wastes away nor is corrupted. 
 
 This is the sum of all true righteousness : treat 
 others as thou wouldst thyself be treated. Do noth- 
 ing to thy neighbor which hereafter thou wouldst 
 not have thy neighbor do to thee. In causing pleas- 
 
-47 
 
 ure or in giving pain, in doing good or injury to 
 
 others, in granting or refusing a request, a man 
 
 obtains a proper rule of action, by looking on his 
 neighbor as himself. 
 
 Among the most ancient traditions of the Hin- 
 doos is that of the Tree of Life, — called Sbma, in 
 Sanskrit, — the juice of which imparted immor- 
 tality. This tree was guarded by spirits. 
 
 They had a legend of Paradise which reads as 
 follows : — 
 
 In the sacred mountain Meru, which is perpetu- 
 ally clothed in the golden rays of the Sun, and 
 whose lofty summit reaches into heaven, no sinful 
 man can exist. It is guarded by a dreadful dragon. 
 It is adorned with many celestial plants and trees, 
 and is watered hy four rivers, which thence separate 
 and flow to the four chief directions. 
 
 In the Genesis account it is cherubira" who 
 guarded the Garden of Eden, and they were sup- 
 posed to be angels ; but we are told, by a recent 
 writer, that the cherub is not an angel but an ani- 
 mal, and a mythological animal, at that. The 
 cherub had the body of a lion, sometimes the head 
 of another animal or of a man, and the wings of a 
 bird. The cherub that was placed at the Garden of 
 Eden, to keep the way of life was simply a dragon. 
 
 Origen believed aright, as it is now almost uni- 
 versally admitted, that the stories of the Garden 
 
48 
 
 of Eden, the Elysian Fields, the Garden of the 
 Blessed, — which were the abode of the blessed, 
 where grief and sorrow could not approach them, 
 where plague and sickness could not touch them, 
 — were founded on allegory. These abodes of 
 delight were far away in the west, where the Sun 
 goes down beyond the bounds of the earth. They 
 were the Golden Islands, sailing in a sea of blue — 
 the burnished clouds floating in the pure ether. In a 
 word, the Elysian Fields are the clouds at even-tide, the 
 picture being suggested by the images drawn from 
 the phenomena of sunset and twilight. 
 
 The Hindoo legend of the Creation is that Siva, 
 as the Supreme Being, desired to tempt Brahma 
 (who had taken human form, and was called Sway- 
 ambhura — Son of the Self -existent), and for this 
 reason he dropped from heaven a blossom of the 
 sacred fig-tree. Swayambhura, instigated by his 
 wife Satarupa, endeavors to obtain this blossom, 
 thinking its possession will render him immortal 
 and divine ; but when he has succeeded in doing 
 so, he is cursed by Siva, and doomed to misery and 
 degradation. The sacred Indian fig-tree is endowed 
 by both the Brahmans and the Buddhists with mys- 
 terious significance, as the Tree of Knowledge, or 
 Intelligence. 
 
 The Hindoos have an account of a Deluge simi- 
 lar to the account contained in Genesis, also an 
 account of the Babel Confusion of Tongues. 
 
 They have a legend that corresponds to the 
 
49 
 
 Hebrew account of Abraham and Isaac, and sev- 
 eral accounts of seas and rivers being divided, as 
 the Red Sea was said to be divided, for Moses and 
 the Israelites to pass through. 
 
 They also had their Samson, whose name was 
 Bala-Rama, the Strong Rama. He was worshipped 
 at Mutra conjointly with Crishna ; and the two 
 were considered as one avatar, or incarnation of 
 Vishnu, Vishnu being the Sun. 
 
 The Hindoo story of Saktideva, who was swallowed _ 
 by a huge fish and came out unhurt, is similar to the 
 Hebrew account of Jonah swallowed by the whale, . 
 which is undoubtedly a sun-myth, and represents ' 
 the Sun being swallowed up by the earth, — as it 
 apparently is when it sets in the west, — to be cast 
 forth by the earth again in the morning. One of 
 the names given to the Sun was Jona, and the earth 
 is sometimes represented in mythology as a huge 
 fish. The three days and three nights, mentioned 
 in the account, represent the Sun at the winter sol- 
 stice, when it is apparently stationary for that length 
 of time in the sign Capri cornus. 
 
 The Hindoo sacred writings relate many accounts 
 of their Holy Ones being taken up alive into heaven, 
 as the Hebrew Elisha was taken, and impressions 
 on rocks are shown, as their footprints which last 
 touched the earth. 
 
 Arresting the course of the Sun, as Joshua is said 
 to have done, was a c6mmon thing among the dis- 
 ciples of Buddha. A holy Buddhist, by the name 
 4 
 
50 
 
 of Matanga, prevented the Sun, at his command, 
 from rising, and bisected the moon. An Indian 
 fable relates that the Sun stood still to hear the 
 pious ejaculations of Arjuna, after the death of 
 Crishna. 
 
 The Hindoos also have a fable which corresponds 
 to the account of Pharaoh's two dreams. 
 
 The sun-myths finally came to be interwoven with 
 the histories of eminent men, as in the case of the 
 Sakya Prince Siddhartha, afterwards called Buddha 
 (the Enlightened One), who, the legend says, "left 
 Paradise, and in mercy came down to earth, because 
 he was filled with compassion for the sins and mis- 
 eries of mankind. He sought to lead them in bet- 
 ter paths, and took their sufferings upon himself, 
 that he might expiate their crimes, and mitigate the 
 punishment they must otherwise inevitably endure." 
 
 Buddha's Incarnation is said to have been accom- 
 plished through the agency of the Holy Spirit. 
 Before his birth a heavenly messenger appeared in a 
 dream to his virgin mother, Maha-Maya, and said : 
 "Behold, thou Shalt bring forth a son bearing the 
 mystic signs of Buddha, a scion of royal lineage, a 
 son of highest kings. When he shall leave his 
 kingdom and his country to enter the state of devo- 
 tion, he shall become a sacrifice for the dwellers of 
 earth, a Buddha who to all men shall give joy and 
 the glorious fruits of immortality." (See Note 3.) 
 
 The immortals of the Tusita - heaven decide that 
 Buddha shall be born when the Flower-star makes 
 
51 
 
 its first appearance in the east. At his birth a host 
 of angelic messengers descend and announce tidings 
 of great joy : " A hero, glorious and incomparable, 
 has been born, a saviour unto all nations of the 
 earth." (See Appendix B.) 
 
 Princes and wise Brahmans appear and worship 
 the child Buddha. The Rishi, Asita, to whom the 
 devas had revealed the miraculous birth of Buddha, 
 descends from his shady thicket, dirghavardana, to 
 see the new-born child, and predicts Buddha's mission 
 to save and enlighten the world. 
 
 The Abhinish-Kramana Sutra relates that the 
 king of Maghada instructed one of his ministers to 
 institute an inquiry, whether any inhabitant of the 
 kingdom could possibly become powerful enough to 
 endanger the safety of the throne. Two spies are 
 sent out. One of them ascertains the birth of 
 Buddha, his tribe and dwelling-place, and the prom- 
 ise of his future glory. He makes his report to the 
 king, and advises him to take measures to extermi- 
 nate the tribe. 
 
 Certain elders gave council to the king, saying, 
 " Is it not time, O Monarch, that the infant should 
 be presented in the temple?" A magnificent pro- 
 cession accompanied the child to the temple, com- 
 posed of gods, cloud nymphs, etc. 
 
 Buddha's parents miss the boy one day ; and after 
 searching for him far and near, they find him in an 
 assembly of rishis (sages of the past) who listen to 
 his discourses and marvel at his understanding. 
 
Buddha, before entering upon his mission, meets 
 the Brahman Rudraka, a mighty preacher, who, 
 however, offers to become his disciple. Some of 
 Rudraka's followers secede to Buddha, but leave 
 him when they find that he does not observe the 
 fasts. 
 
 Buddha retires to the solitude of Uruvela, and 
 fasts and prays in the desert till hunger forces him 
 to leave his retreat. After his fast, Buddha takes 
 a bath in the river Neranjara. When he leaves the 
 water, purified, the devas open the gates of Heaven, 
 and cover him with a shower of fragrant flowers. 
 During Buddha's fast in the desert, Mara, the Prince 
 of Darkness, approaches him with promises of 
 wealth and earthly glory. Buddha rejects his offers, 
 by quoting passages of the Vedas. The tempter 
 flees ; angels descend and salute Buddha. 
 
 Buddha has frequent interviews with two buddhas 
 who had preceded him. It is in the shade of the 
 sacred fig-tree that the conversion and ordination of 
 Buddha's first disciples take place. These disciples 
 were previously followers of Rudraka. Before 
 Buddha appoints a larger number of apostles, he 
 selects five favorite disciples, one of whom is after- 
 ward styled the Pillar of the Faith ; another, the 
 Bosom Friend of Buddha. Among the followers of 
 Buddha there is a Judas, Devadatta, who tries to 
 destroy his master, and meets with a disgraceful 
 death. 
 
 Buddha alludes to an interview with several 
 
53 
 
 former Buddhas. Sceptics question his statement: 
 ''• Only forty years ago you left your native town : 
 how can you claim to have seen all those saints of 
 old ? " Buddha explains it by the pre-existence of 
 his soul. 
 
 Buddha walks on the River Ganges. He heals 
 the sick by a mere touch of his hand ; and, accord- 
 ing to Wassiljew, the Mayana-Sutra relates the mira- 
 cle of the loaves and fishes. Buddha repeatedly 
 has a miraculous escape from the snares of his 
 adversaries. " But he, going through the midst of 
 them, went his way." Once, when riding on his 
 horse, Kantaka, his path was strewn with flowers 
 thrown down by Devas. Buddha remains homeless 
 and poor, and instructs his disciples to travel with- 
 out money, trusting to the aid of Providence. At 
 one time having no money to pay a boatman who 
 refuses to carry him without pay, Buddha floats 
 through the air across the stream. 
 
 To convert certain sceptical villagers he showed 
 them a man walking across a deep and rapid river, 
 without immersing his feet. A disciple had his feet 
 hacked off by an unjust king, and Buddha cured 
 him. At his appearance the sick were healed, the 
 deaf cured, and the blind had their sight restored. 
 
 Even his disciples performed miracles. The 
 brother of one of them being in imminent danger 
 of shipwreck, in a "black storm," the fact was made 
 known to the disciple by spirits, and he at once per- 
 formed the miracle of transporting himself to the 
 
54 
 
 deck of the ship, when immediately the black tem- 
 pest ceased. Several of Buddha's disciples received 
 power to exorcise evil spirits. They also had the 
 gift of speaking in foreign tongues. 
 
 Some of the followers of Buddha being impris- 
 oned by an unjust emperor, an angel, or spirit, came 
 and opened the prison-door, and liberated them. 
 
 It is related of one of his followers that his eye 
 offended him, and that he plucked it out and cast it 
 away. 
 
 One day Buddha's disciple, Ananda, after a long 
 walk in the country, meets with a woman of the low 
 caste of the Kandalas, near a well, and asks her for 
 some water. She tells him what she is, and that she 
 must not come near him. He replies, *' My sister, I 
 ask not for thy caste or thy family ; I ask only for a 
 draught of water." She afterwards becomes a dis- 
 ciple of Buddha. 
 
 It is said that towards the end of his life Buddha 
 was transfigured on Mount Pandava, in Ceylon. 
 Suddenly a flame of light descended upon him, and 
 encircled the crown of his head with a circle of light. 
 His body became "glorious as a bright, golden 
 image," and shone as the brightness of the Sun 
 and moon. " His body was divided into three 
 parts, from each of which a ray of light issued 
 forth." 
 
 It is recorded, in the sacred canon of the Buddh- 
 ists, that the multitude required a sign from Buddha, 
 that they might believe. 
 
55 
 
 Buddha delighted in representing himself as 
 merely a link in a long chain of teachers. 
 
 He taught his disciples to hide their good deeds, 
 and confess their sins before the world, — to love 
 truth and hate the lie. He also taught that all men 
 are brothers, that charity should be extended to all, 
 even to enemies, and that the motive of all actions 
 should be pity or love for one's neighbor. His dis- 
 ciples were told that they must renounce the world, 
 give up all their riches, and embrace poverty. 
 
 In the Buddhist Somadeva is the following: "To 
 give away our riches is considered the most difficult 
 virtue in the world ; he who gives away his riches is 
 like a man who gives away his life ; for our very life 
 seems to cling to our riches. But Buddha, when his 
 mind was moved by pity, gave his life like grass, for 
 the sake of others." 
 
 Buddha is reported to have said : " I now desire 
 to turn the wheel of the excellent law. For this 
 purpose am I going to the city of Benares, to give 
 light to those shrouded in darkness, and to open the 
 gates of immortality to man." 
 
 When his career on earth was about coming to a 
 close, he, " foreseeing the things that would happen 
 in future times," said to his disciple Ananda : " When 
 I am gone, you must not think there is no Buddha ; 
 the discourses I have delivered, and the precepts I 
 have enjoined, must be my successors, or represent- 
 atives, and be to you as Buddha." 
 
 Again he said : " Though the heavens were to fall 
 
56 
 
 to earth, and the great world be swallowed up and 
 pass away ; though Mount Sumera were to crack to 
 pieces, and the great ocean be dried up, yet, Ananda, 
 be assured the words of Buddha are true." 
 
 At the death of Buddha, the earth trembled, the 
 rocks were split and phantoms and spirits appeared. 
 He descended to hell and preached to the spirits of 
 the damned. 
 
 When Buddha was buried, tne coverings of the 
 body unrolled themselves, the lid of his coffin was 
 opened by supernatural powers, and he ascended 
 bodily to the celestial regions. Marks on the rocks 
 of a high mountain are shown, which are believed 
 to be the last imprint of his footsteps in this 
 world. 
 
 He was called the Lion of the Tribe of Sakya, the 
 King of Righteousness, the Great Physician, the 
 God among Gods, the Only Begotten, the Word, the 
 All-wise, the Way, the Truth, the Life, the Inter- 
 cessor, the Prince of Peace, the Good Shepherd, the 
 Light of the World, the Anointed, the Christ, the 
 Messiah, the Saviour of the World, the Way of 
 Life and Immortality. Indeed in Ceylon the name 
 of Buddha has twelve thousand synonyms. 
 
 When the time came for him to depart, he told 
 his disciples to no longer remain together, but to 
 go out in companies, and proclaim the doctrines he 
 had taught them, — to found schools and monasteries, 
 build temples, and perform acts of charity, — that 
 they might obtain merit, and gain access to the 
 
$7 
 
 blessed abode of Nigban, which he told them he 
 was about to enter. 
 
 The ever-faithful women were to be found at the 
 last scene in the life of Buddha. At his death 
 one of his disciples found the master's feet soiled 
 and wet, and, asking the cause of it, was told 
 that a weeping woman had embraced Gautama's 
 feet shortly before his death, and that her tears had 
 fallen on his feet and left the marks there. 
 
 After his death Buddha was exalted to the rank 
 of deity. He was made equal to Brahma ; Demons 
 were powerless against his word ; angels and arhats 
 ministered unto him. 
 
 Buddha taught the efficacy of vicarious atonement ; 
 a hell of fire and ceaseless torment ; the existence 
 of a prodigious number of malevolent demons ; the 
 virtue of celibacy; the merit of seclusion and a 
 retired life; the rejection of ancient rites and cere- 
 monies ; the utility of self-sacrifice ; the vanity of 
 earthly joys ; the demerit of wealth ; the deprecia- 
 tion of industry and the pursuit of worldly advan- 
 tages ; the merit of mendicancy ; the merit of aban- 
 doning wife and children ; love of enemies ; patience, 
 submission, and self-denial ; submission to injustice 
 and tyranny ; the sinfulness of scepticism ; auricular 
 confession of sin, and the worship of saints. 
 
 Buddha's mercy is compared to a rain-cloud, 
 which showers blessings upon the just and unjust. 
 Earthly joys are compared to the grass which 
 blooms to-day, and to-morrow is cast into the fire. 
 
58 
 
 True believers are advised to gather treasures which 
 neither thieves can steal nor fire and water can 
 spoil. Ignorant teachers are likened to the blind 
 leading the blind. The repentant sinner is de- 
 scribed in a parable of a prodigal son, who wastes 
 his substance in foreign countries, but at last returns 
 to the house of his father, where, after serving as a 
 common day-laborer, the son is pardoned, and 
 becomes his father's chief heir. 
 
 The new religion spread extensively all over the 
 vast continent of Hindostan; and finally, about 
 three hundred years after Buddha's death, found an 
 enthusiastic and powerful convert in the person of a 
 king called Asoka. This ruler was imbued with a 
 missionary spirit, and under his influence some 
 eighty thousand missionaries went throughout India, 
 and into China, Japan, Ceylon, Persia, Babylonia, 
 Syria, Palestine, Egypt, — to that very populous 
 and important emporium, Alexandria. Indeed, they 
 seem to have gone into every country to which 
 ships, caravans, and the flow of commerce gave 
 them access. 
 
 Buddha's representative on earth is the Grand 
 Lama, the high-priest of the Tartars, who is re- 
 garded as the vicegerent of God. The Tartars 
 have oecumenical councils, monasteries, nunneries, 
 the division of temples into a nave and transept, 
 pulpits, dalmaticas, bell-ringing, incense, the censor 
 suspended from five chains, chalices, chaplets, rosa- 
 ries, chanted services, litanies, aspersions with con- 
 
59 - 
 
 secrated water, priests with shaven polls and bare 
 heads, confession of sins, prayers for the sick, 
 extreme unction, masses and sacrifices for the dead, 
 worship of relics, weekly and yearly fasts, feast of 
 the Immaculate Conception, Candlemas, Baptism, 
 the Eucharist, worship of one God in Trinity and a 
 belief in Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory. 
 
 Buddhism is supposed to have been more exten- 
 sively adopted than any other religion. For nearly 
 two thousand four hundred years it has been the 
 established religion of Burmah, Siam, Laos, Cam- 
 bodia, Thibet, Japan, Tartary, Ceylon, Loo-Choo, 
 and many neighboring islands, besides about two- 
 thirds of China and a large portion of Siberia ; and 
 at the present day no inconsiderable number of the 
 peasantry of Lapland are to be found among its 
 adherents. 
 
 Its votaries are computed at four-hundred-mill- 
 ions, more than one-third of the entire population 
 of the world, while Hindooism and Buddhism to- 
 gether have become the faiths of more than one- 
 half the human race, and have spread Aryan theol- 
 ogy and culture throughout Asia, to the utmost 
 limits of China and Japan. 
 
 The Aryan sun-myths, as has been mentioned, 
 went with the Aryans when they peopled Persia, 
 and became the religion of the ancient Parsees. 
 Mithras was the name which the Persians gave to 
 the Sun. After ages had passed, it was utterly for- 
 gotten that Mithras was the Sun, and it was believed 
 
6o 
 
 that he was the. Only Begotten Son of God, who had 
 come down from Heaven to be a mediator between 
 God and man, to save men from their sins. The 
 twenty-fifth of December was said to be the day on 
 which this God-man was born, and it was celebrated 
 with great rejoicings. The legend was that the 
 wondrous infant was visited soon after his mirac- 
 ulous birth, by wise men called magi, who brought 
 gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. It was 
 customary for the magi to ascend a high mountain, 
 at early dawn on the twenty-fifth of December, and 
 there, with their faces turned to the east, to wait 
 anxiously for the first rays of the Sun, which they 
 hailed with incense and prayer. The shepherds, also, 
 were in the habit of prostrating themselves and pray- 
 ing to their god, the Sun. (See Note 4.) 
 
 Mithras was said to be the Logos, also the 
 Anointed, or the Christ, and was called the Lamb 
 of God. His worshippers addressed him in their 
 litany, constantly repeating the words : O Lamb of 
 God! that taketh away the sins of the world, have 
 mercy upon us. Grant us thy peace. It was be- 
 lieved by the inhabitants of Persia, Asia Minor, and 
 Armenia that Mithras had been put to death, been 
 three days in Hell, and had risen again from the 
 dead. In their mysteries was exhibited the body of 
 a young man, apparently dead, who was pres- 
 ently restored to life. His disciples watched 
 his sepulchre till midnight, on the twenty-fourth of 
 March, with wailings and in darkness, when sud- 
 
6i 
 
 denly the place would be brilliantly illuminated, and 
 the priest would cry : Rejoice, O sacred Initiated; 
 your God is risen. His death, his pains, his suffer- 
 ings, have worked our salvation. Mithras's symbol 
 was a serpent. 
 
 The Mithrians had their mysterious meetings, 
 their chapels, and their ceremony of initiation, 
 which included Baptism and the Eucharist. The 
 forehead of the initiate was marked, at the time of 
 baptism, with the sign of the cross. Infants also 
 were baptized, — for the purification of the soul, sin 
 having been inherited, — a name being given to the 
 child at that time. The ancient Persians believed 
 that they were tainted with original sin, owing to 
 the fall of their first parents, who were tempted by 
 the Evil One, in the form of a serpent. Indeed, 
 their legends of the Creation — of Heden.^ the origi- 
 nal abode of man — and the River of Life, are almost 
 identical with the account of the Creation and Gar- 
 den of Eden, contained in Genesis. They had a 
 legend of a Deluge, and also a legend that is similar 
 to the Hebrew story of Jonah. (See Appendix D.) 
 
 The story of the War in Heaven was known to 
 them; and was simply a myth, which represented 
 the conflict between day and night, sunshine and 
 storm. 
 
 The doctrine of the Millennium was familiar to 
 them, — a time when, as they believed, the dead 
 would be raised, and "the sea return again the 
 remains of the departed." At this time the dead 
 
62 
 
 were to be judged before an assembled world, and 
 the righteous separated from the wicked. 
 
 These doctrines were contained in the Zend- 
 Avesta (the Living Word), which, judging from its 
 language, is said by Professor Miiller to be older 
 than the cuneiform inscriptions of Cyrus (B.C. 560). 
 The Persians believe that Zoroaster, the founder of 
 their religion, received this Book of the Law from 
 the Lord, in the midst of thunders and lightnings, 
 as he prayed one day on a high mountain. While 
 the King of Persia and the people were assembled 
 together, Zoroaster came down from the mountain 
 unharmed, bringing with him the Book of the Law. 
 The points of resemblance between this account of 
 the Persians and the later account of the Hebrew 
 Moses, — bringing the Tables of the Law from 
 Mount Sinai, — are very striking. 
 
 If we turn to the Egyptians, we shall find that 
 the Aryan sun-myths became the foundation of their 
 religion also. One of their names for the Sun was 
 Osiris. The facts relating to the incarnation, birth, 
 life, and death of Osiris are very similar to those in 
 the legends of the Hindoo and Persian sun-gods. 
 It was said that he was born on the twenty-fifth of 
 December, and that he was the son of Seb and Neith, 
 or Nut, whose common appellation was the Lady 
 of the Sycamore. At the birth of Osiris a voice 
 was heard proclaiming, " The Ruler of all the 
 earth is born." Like other sun-gods, he met with 
 temptations over which he triumphed, but was 
 
63 
 
 finally conquered by his foes. At the annual festi- 
 val, in early spring, which commemorated his suffer- 
 ings and tragical death, there was a species of drama, 
 in which the particulars were exhibited with loud la- 
 mentations. His image — covered, as were those in 
 the temple, with black veils — was carried in a pro- 
 cession. The Mourning Song, whose plaintive tones 
 were noted by Herodotus, and has been compared 
 to the Miserere sung in Rome, was followed in 
 three days by the language of triumph. His tomb 
 was illuminated, as is the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusa- 
 lem, and for thousands of years it was the object of 
 pious pilgrimages. (See Note 5.) 
 
 His worship was universal throughout Egypt, 
 where he was gratefully regarded as the great 
 exemplar of self-sacrifice, in giving his life for others, 
 — as the Manifester of Good, as the Opener of 
 Truth, — and as being full of goodness and truth. 
 The Egyptian Book of the Dead, the oldest Bible in 
 the world, represents him as "seeing all things, 
 hearing all things," and " noting the good and evil 
 deeds of men." On the most ancient Egyptian 
 monuments he is represented as Judge of the Dead, 
 seated on his throne of judgment, bearing a staff, 
 and carrying the crux ansata (the most common 
 form of the cross) with the St. Andrew's cross on 
 his breast. These sculptures were contemporary 
 with the building of the pyramids, which were built 
 centuries before Abraham is said to have been born. 
 Osiris was represented with the trefoil (the leaf of 
 
64 
 
 the Vila, or Bel-tree, which is triple in form) on his 
 head, that being one of the ancient symbols of the 
 f/iree-m-o/ie mystery — the Trinity. As second per- 
 son of the Trinity he was called the Word. In one 
 of the sacred books of the Egyptians occurs the 
 following : " I know the mystery of the Divine 
 Word ; the Word of the Lord of All, which was the 
 maker of it." " The Word is the first person after 
 himself, — uncreated, infinite, ruling over all things 
 that were made by him." 
 
 The monogram of Osiris is X and P in combina- 
 tion, and is now used as the monogram of Jesus 
 Christ. His symbol is the serpent, which was the 
 earliest symbol of Jesus, centuries later. Among 
 the many hieroglyphic titles which accompany the 
 figure of Osiris on the walls of temples and tombs 
 are Lord of Life, Resurrected One, Eternal Ruler, 
 Manifester of God, Full of Goodness and Truth. 
 
 There was great splendor of ritual in the Egyp- 
 tian religion, including gorgeous robes, mitres, tiaras, 
 wax tapers, processional services, and lustrations. 
 The priests wore white surplices, and were shorn 
 and beardless. There were also sprinklings of holy 
 water. The rite of Baptism was observed, with the 
 sign of the cross, and also the Eucharist, — the 
 sacred cake being eaten after it had been conse- 
 crated by the priest, and made veritable ^' flesh of 
 his flesh." The sun, moon, and five planets were 
 each of them assigned a day of the week, the 
 seventh day being Saturn's Day, and kept as a holy 
 
65 
 
 day. The Immortality of the Soul was believed in 
 and was a very ancient doctrine ; for on a monu- 
 ment thousands of years old is the epitaph : " May 
 thy soul attain to the Creator of all mankind." 
 Like the Buddhists, the ancient Egyptians were 
 familiar with the War in Heaven myth and the Tree 
 of Life myth. 
 
 Neith, the mother of Osiris, was worshipped as 
 the Holy Virgin, the Great Mother, yet an Immacu- 
 late Virgin. There was a grand celebration held 
 in her honor, called the Feast of Lamps, which has 
 come down to the present time as Candlemas Day, 
 or the Purification of the Virgin Mary. 
 
 Horus, another Egyptian name for the Sun, was 
 said to have been born of the immaculate virgin 
 Isis (the Moon), on the twenty-fifth of December. 
 On this day the effigy of the infant Horus, lying in a 
 manger, was exhibited amid great rejoicings. Being 
 of royal descent, his life was sought by Typhon 
 (darkness or night), and in consequence he was 
 brought up secretly on the isle of Buto. Like other 
 sun-gods, he was tempted, but was not vanquished. 
 He is represented, in Egyptian art, as overcoming 
 the Evil Serpent, and standing triumphantly upon 
 him. It was said that he performed many miracles, 
 among them the raising of the dead. He was finally 
 slain, and descended into Hell. In three days he 
 rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven. His 
 death and resurrection were celebrated with great 
 pomp. He was called the Royal Good Shepherd, 
 5 
 
66 
 
 Lord of Life, Only-Begotten, Saviour, the Anointed, 
 or the Christ; and when represented as Horus Sneb, 
 the Redeemer. He is generally represented as an 
 infant in the arms of his mother Isis, or sitting on 
 her knee ; and in many of these representations 
 both the mother and child are black. As the Sun 
 seemingly rests on the earth at his rising, it was said 
 that he was sitting in the lap of his mother; and as 
 the earth is black, or dark, before the rising of the 
 Sun, the mother and child were represented as 
 black. (See Appendix E.) 
 
 The most ancient pictures and statues, in Italy and 
 other parts of Europe, of what are supposed to be 
 representations of the Virgin Mary and the infant 
 Jesus, are black. The infant god in the arms of his 
 black mother, with white eyes, teeth, and drapery, is 
 himself perfectly black. The images are adorned 
 with jewels, and in some cases the Virgin is crowned 
 with a triple crown. The explanation of these 
 early representations of the Virgin Mary and infant 
 Jesus, — ^ black, yet crowned and covered with jewels, 
 — is that they are of pre-Christian origin ; they are 
 Isis and Horus, — and perhaps, in some cases, De- 
 vaki and Crishna, — baptized anew. In many parts 
 of Italy are to be seen pictures of the Holy Family, 
 of great antiquity, the groundwork often of gold. 
 These pictures represent the mother, with a child on 
 her knee, and a little boy by her side. The Lamb 
 is generally seen in the picture. They are inscribed 
 Deo Soli, and are representations of Isis and Horus. 
 
67 
 
 The Deo Soli betrays their Pagan origin. Isis was 
 worshipped in Europe as well as Egypt, for centuries 
 before and after the Christian era. She was wor- 
 shipped as the Virgin Mother, and styled Our Lady, 
 Queen of Heaven, Star of the Sea, Governess, 
 Mother of God, Intercessor. It is related that Isis, 
 being at one time on a journey, came to the River 
 Phcedrus, which was in a " rough air." Wishing to 
 cross, she commanded the stream to be dried up, 
 and it obeyed her. It was said that she healed the 
 sick and gave sight to the blind. Pilgrimages were 
 made to her temples, by the sick. 
 
 Isis was represented as standing on the crescent 
 moon, with twelve stars surrounding her head ; pre- 
 cisely as the Virgin Mary is now represented in al- 
 most every Roman Catholic Church on the conti- 
 nent of Europe. She was also represented with the 
 infant Horus in her arms, enclosed in a framework of 
 the flowers of the Egyptian bean, the sacred lotus ; 
 as the Virgin Mary was afterwards represented in 
 mediaeval art. 
 
 The sun-myth began its hold upon the Egyptians 
 more than five-thousand years ago, when men trusted 
 in a Risen Saviour, and confidently hoped to rise 
 from the grave as he had risen. 
 
 The ancient Egyptians had the legend of the 
 Tree of Life, the fruit of which enabled those who 
 ate of it to become as gods. 
 
 The Egyptian records contain no account of a 
 cataclysmal deluge, the land apparently never having 
 
68 
 
 been visited by other than the annual beneficent 
 overflow of the Nile. Indeed, Pharaoh Khoufou- 
 cheops was building his pyramid, according to 
 Egyptian chronicle, when the whole world was under 
 the waters of a universal Deluge, according to 
 Hebrew chronicle. The Egyptians have no account 
 of the destruction of Pharaoh and his army, in the 
 Red Sea, or of the other circumstances attending 
 the Exodus from Egypt. We find, in Egyptian his- 
 tory, that at one time the land of Egypt was infected 
 with disease ; and, through the advice of the sacred 
 scribe Phritiphantes, the king caused the infected 
 people to be driven out of the country. The in- 
 fected people were the brick-making slaves, known 
 as the Children of Israel, who were infected with 
 leprosy. "The most noble of them went under Cad- 
 mus and Danaus to Greece, but the greater number 
 followed Moses, a wise and valiant leader, to Pales- 
 tine." 
 
 Serapis was another Egyptian sun-god, whose fol- 
 lowers were called Christians and Bishops of Christ. 
 
 In Grecian fable there are many saviours. 
 
 The sun-god Hercules, son of Zeus (the sky) and 
 Alcmene, was born, like the other saviours, on the 
 twenty-fifth of December — the triple night, as the 
 Greeks named the winter solstice. At his birth, 
 Zeus, the God of gods, spake from Heaven and 
 said : " This day shall a child be born, of the race of 
 Perseus, who shall be the mightiest of the sons of 
 men." While an infant in his cradle, Hera, the life- 
 
69 
 
 long foe of Hercules, sent two serpents to strangle 
 him, but he killed them. The position of the spheres, 
 on the twenty-fifth of December, shows the zodiacal 
 sign of the Serpent, aiming at, and almost touching, 
 the Virgin, who has the child lesus in her arms, in 
 the constellation Virgo. (See Appendix F.) 
 
 Hercules was said to have been swallowed by a 
 huge fish (in one account it is a dag), at Joppa, the 
 place where the Hebrew Jonah was said to have been 
 swallowed by a whale. Hercules remained in the 
 fish three days and three nights (the winter solstice), 
 and came out unhurt, with the exception of being 
 shorn of his locks. The Sun is shorn of his locks by 
 winter. An abundance of hair and a long beard 
 are mythological attributes of the Sun, denoting its 
 rays. (See Note 6.) 
 
 Many of the exploits of Hercules are similar to those 
 accredited to the Hebrew Samson. Samson's death 
 reminds us of Hercules, who died at the winter 
 solstice, in the far west, where his two pillars are 
 set up to mark his wanderings. Samson also died 
 at the two pillars ; but they were not the Pillars 
 of the World, but those which supported a great 
 banqueting-hall, and a feast was being held in 
 honor of Dagon, the fish-god. The Sun was in the 
 sign of the Waterman, when Samson, the sun-god, 
 died. Samson was one of the names of the Sun, the 
 name signifying the sunny, as well as the strong. 
 
 Hercules rose from the funeral pile and ascended 
 into heaven in a cloud, amid peals of thunder. At 
 
70 
 
 his death, lola (the fair-haired Dawn) again stands 
 by his side, cheering him to the last. Then once 
 more the face of Hercules flushed with a deep joy, 
 and he said: "Ah, lola, brightest of maidens, thy 
 voice shall cheer me as I sink down in the sleep 
 of death. I saw and loved thee in the bright 
 morning-time; and now again thou hast come, in the 
 evening^ fair as the soft clouds which gather around 
 the dying Sun.^* 
 
 The black mists were spreading over the sky ; but 
 still Hercules sought to gaze on the fair face of 
 lola, and to comfort her in her sorrow. " Weep 
 not, lola," he said ; " my toil is done, and now is 
 the time of rest. I shall see thee again, in the 
 bright land which is never trodden by the feet of 
 Night." Then, as the dying god expired, darkness 
 was on the face of the earth ; from the high 
 Heaven came down the thick cloud, and the din 
 of the thunder crashed through the air. 
 
 Hercules was said to be self-produced, the Gener- 
 ator and Ruler of all things, and the Father of Time. 
 He was called the Saviour, and the words Hercu- 
 les the Saviour were engraved on ancient coins 
 and monuments. He was also called the Only- 
 Begotten and the Universal Word. He was said to 
 have been re-absorbed into God. 
 
 The story of Hercules was known in the island of 
 Thasos, by the Phoenician colony settled there, five 
 centuries before the Greeks knew of it ; yet its 
 antiquity among the Babylonians antedates that. 
 
71 
 
 He is identical with Izdubar, the Babylonian lion- 
 killer. 
 
 The ancient Greeks had a tradition of the 
 Islands of the Blessed, the Elysium, on the bor- 
 ders of the earth, abounding in every charm of 
 life, and the Garden of the Hesperides, — the Par- 
 adise, in which grew a tree bearing the golden 
 apples of Immortality. It was guarded by three 
 nymphs and a serpent, or dragon, the ever-watch- 
 ful Ladon. It was one of the labors of Hercules to 
 gather some of these Apples of Life. When he ar- 
 rived at the Garden, he found it guarded by a 
 dragon. Ancient medallions represent a tree with 
 a serpent twined around it. Hercules has gath- 
 ered an apple, and near him stand the three 
 nymphs, called the Hesperides. 
 
 The sun-god Dionysius (Bacchus), son of Zeus and 
 the virgin Semele, daughter of Cadmus, King of 
 Thebes, was born on the twenty-fifth of December. 
 As he was destined to bring ruin upon Cadmus, he 
 was, by the order of that monarch, confined in a 
 chest and thrown into the Nile. Like Moses, he 
 was rescued and adopted. He performed many 
 miracles, among them being the turning of water 
 into wine. He had a rod with which he could per- 
 form miracles, and which he could change into a ser- 
 pent at pleasure. He crossed the Red Sea dry-shod, 
 at the head of his army. He divided the waters of 
 the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes by the touch of his 
 rod, and passed through them dry-shod. By the same 
 
72 
 
 mighty wand he drew water from the rock; and wher- 
 ever he went, the land flowed with wine, milk, 
 and honey. It is said that while marching with his 
 army in India he enjoyed the light of the Sun 
 when the day was spent, and it was dark to others. 
 Like Moses, Bacchus was represented as horned. 
 He was called the Law-giver, his laws being written 
 on two tables of stone. (See Note 7.) 
 
 It is related that on one occasion Pantheus, King 
 of Thebes, sent his attendants to seize Bacchus — 
 the Vagabond Leader of a Faction, as he called him. 
 This they were unable to do, as his followers were 
 too numerous. They succeeded, however, in cap- 
 turing one of his disciples, who was led away and 
 shut up fast in prison ; but, while they were getting 
 ready the instruments of execution, the prison doors 
 came open of their own accord, and the chains fell 
 from his limbs, and when they looked for him he 
 was nowhere to be found. 
 
 Bacchus was called the Slain One, the Sin-Bearer, 
 the Only-Begotten Son, the Saviour, and the Re- 
 deemer, His death, resurrection, and ascension were 
 commemorated in early spring by festivals similar 
 in character to those held by the Persians, Egyptians, 
 Chaldeans, and others. 
 
 The Greeks had their Holy Mysteries. Their 
 Eleusinian Mysteries, or the Sacrament of their 
 Lord's Supper, was the most august of all their 
 ceremonies. It was celebrated every fifth year, in 
 honor of Ceres, the goddess of corn, who, in alle- 
 
73 
 
 gorical language, had given them her flesh to eat ; and 
 Bacchus, the god of wine, who, in like sense, had 
 given them his blood to drink. These mysteries were 
 accompanied with rites which were considered to be 
 an expiation of sin. Throughout the whole cere- 
 mony the name of their God was many times re- 
 peated. His brightness, or glory, was not only exhib- 
 ited to the eye, by the rays which surrounded his 
 name (or his monogram, I. H. S.), but was made the 
 peculiar theme of their triumphant exultation. The 
 monogram of Bacchus, I. H. S., is now used as the 
 monogram of Jesus Christ, and is wrongfully sup- 
 posed to stand for Jesu Hominum Salvator, or In 
 Hoc Signo. 
 
 The stories of Prometheus, Achilles, and Melea- 
 gros represent the short-lived Sun. Ixion, bound 
 on the wheel, was the god Sol crucified in the 
 heavens. The crucified dove, worshipped by the 
 ancients, was none other than the crucified Sun ; as 
 it is well known that the ancients personified the 
 Sun as female as well as male. 
 
 The ancient Etruscans worshipped a Virgin 
 Mother and Son, the latter represented, in pict- 
 ures, in the arms of his mother. This was the 
 goddess Nutria. The goddess Cybele was another 
 Virgin Mother, and was called Queen of Heaven 
 and Mother of God. The Galli, now used in the 
 churches of Italy, were anciently used in the wor- 
 ship of Cybele. They were called Galliambus, and 
 were sung by her priests. Our Lady Day, or the 
 
74 
 
 Day of the Blessed Virgin, of the Roman Church, 
 was first dedicated to Cybele. 
 
 The ancient Scandinavians had a sun-god, or 
 Saviour, Baldur the Good, son of the Al-fader, Odin 
 or Woden (Heaven), and the virgin goddess Frigga. 
 Baldur was slain by the sharp thorn of winter, de- 
 scended into Hell, and rose again to life and immor- 
 tality. The goddess Frigga was worshipped, and the 
 night of the greatest festival of all the year — at the 
 winter solstice — was called Mother-night. 
 
 The Scandinavians worshipped a triune God, and 
 consecrated one day in the week to him, the day 
 being called to the present time Odin's, or Woden's, 
 day, which is our Wednesday. They observed the 
 rite of Baptism. They had a legend of an Eden, 
 or Golden Age, which lasted until the arrival of 
 woman out of Jotunheim, the region of giants. 
 They also had a legend of a deluge, from which 
 only one man and his family escaped, by means of a 
 bark. They had a legend corresponding to the 
 Hebrew story of David and Goliath, in which their 
 hero Thor (the Sun) throws a hammer at Hungnir, 
 striking him in the forehead. The hammer was a 
 cross. They also worshipped a god called Frey, 
 who was fabled to have been killed at the winter 
 solstice, by a boar (winter) ; therefore, a boar was 
 annually offered at the great feast of Yule, now 
 called Christmas. (See Note 8.) 
 
 The ancient Germans worshipped a virgin mother 
 and child. The virgin's name was Ostara, or 
 
75 
 
 Eostre, whence comes our Easter. In ancient times 
 this festival was preceded by a week's indulgence 
 in all kinds of sports, called the carne-vale, or the 
 farewell to animal food ; and this was followed by a 
 fast of forty days. This occurred centuries before 
 the Christian era. (See Note 9.) 
 
 The ancient Druids of Britain were also sun- 
 worshippers. 
 
 The idea of redemption through the sufferings and 
 death of a Divine Saviour is to be found in the 
 ancient religions of China. One of their five sacred 
 volumes, called the Y-King, says, in speaking of 
 Tien, the Holy One : — 
 
 The Holy One will unite in himself all the vir- 
 tues of Heaven and earth. By his justice the world 
 will be re-established in the ways of righteousness. 
 He will labor and suffer much. He must pass the 
 great torrent, whose waves shall enter into his soul ; 
 but he alone can offer up to the Lord a sacrifice 
 worthy of him. 
 
 An ancient commentator says : " The Holy One 
 [Tien] does not seek himself, but the good of oth- 
 ers. He dies to save the world." Tien is always 
 spoken of as one with God, existing with him from 
 all eternity, " before anything was made." 
 
 Lao-kiun, the Chinese philosopher and teacher, 
 born in 604 B. C, was said to be a divine emana- 
 tion, incarnate in human form. He was said to 
 have existed "antecedent to the birth of the ele- 
 
16 
 
 ments, in the Great Absolute." " He was the origi- 
 nal ancestor of the prime breath of life, and gave 
 form to the heavens and the earth." He descended 
 to earth and was born of a virgin, black in complex- 
 ion, and described as " marvellous and beautiful as 
 jasper." When his mission of benevolence was 
 finished on earth, he ascended bodily into the Para- 
 dise above. Since then he has been worshipped as 
 a god, and splendid temples have been erected to 
 him. He taught the doctrine of One God, who is 
 also a Trinity. His disciples are called Heavenly 
 Teachers. What is now known as the Easter 
 celebration was observed in China, and called a 
 Festival of Gratitude to Tien. (See Note id.) 
 
 The Chinese have, in their sacred books, a story 
 of a Golden Age and a mysterious "delicious" 
 garden, wherein grew a tree bearing "apples of 
 immortality," guarded by a winged serpent, called a 
 Dragon. The garden was moistened by four rivers, 
 which flowed from a source called the Fountain of 
 Immortality. One of the rivers was called the River 
 of the Lamb. In this blissful abode there was no 
 calamity, sickness, or death. 
 
 In one of the Chinese sacred volumes, called the 
 Chi-King, it is written : — 
 
 All was subject to man at first, but a woman 
 threw us into slavery. The wise husband raised up 
 a bulwark of walls ; but the woman, by an ambitious 
 desire for knowledge, demolished them. Our misery 
 
/^y^'" 
 
 77 
 
 did not come from Heaven, but from a woman. 
 She lost the human race. Ah, unhappy Poo See ! 
 thou kindledst the fire that consumes us, and which 
 is every day augmenting. Our misery has lasted 
 many ages. The world is lost. Vice overflows all 
 things, like a mortal poison. 
 
 The Chinese have a legend of the Sun standing 
 still, and a legend of the Deluge. Accounts of the 
 ascent to Heaven of holy men, without death, are 
 found in their mythology. They believe that in 
 the latter days there will be a millennium, and that a 
 divine man will establish himself on earth, and 
 everywhere restore peace and happiness. From 
 time immemorial the Chinese have worshipped a 
 virgin mother and child. The mother is called 
 Shin-moo, or the Holy Mother, and is represented 
 with rays of glory surrounding her head. Tapers 
 are kept constantly burning before her images, 
 which are elevated in alcoves behind the altars of 
 their temples. 
 
 In the mythological systems of America, a virgin- 
 born god, or saviour, was not less clearly recognized 
 than in those of the Old World. Among the savage 
 tribes his origin and character were, for obvious 
 reasons, much confused ; but among the more ad- 
 vanced nations he occupied a well-defined position. 
 
 The Mexican sun-god, or saviour, Quetzalcoatle, 
 born in the land of Tulan in Anahuac, was the son 
 of Tezcatlipoca, the Supreme God of the ancient 
 
78 
 
 Mexicans, and the virgin Sochiquetzal, who was 
 worshipped as the Virgin Mother, the Queen of 
 Heaven. Tezcatlipoca was styled Xiuleticutle, an 
 epithet signifying the Lord of Heaven. {Xiuletl 
 signifies blue ; and therefore was a name which the 
 Mexicans gave to Heaven.) 
 
 Quetzalcoatle's birth was heralded by a star, and 
 the Morning-star was his symbol. He taught metal- 
 lurgy, agriculture, and the art of government. He 
 was tempted by the Devil, and a forty days' fast 
 was observed by his disciples. He was put to death 
 by Eopuco, and died for the sins of mankind, after 
 having been placed on a beam of wood, with his 
 arms outstretched. He was represented in some 
 instances as crucified in space, in the heavens, within 
 a circle of nineteen figures, the number of the me-- 
 tonic cycle, — a serpent (the serpent, when repre- 
 sented in connection with a crucifixion, denoting 
 evil, darkness, and winter) being in the picture. 
 He was occasionally represented as crucified be- 
 tween two other victims. This denoted the three 
 qualities, or personalities, of the Sun, as Creator, 
 Saviour, and Reconstructor, — the Trinity. In other 
 pictures he is crucified on a cross of Greek form, 
 with the impressions of nails on the feet and hands, 
 and with the body strangely covered with suns. In 
 these pictures many of the figures have black faces, 
 and the visage of Quetzalcoatle is strangely distorted. 
 
 At the death of Quetzalcoatle, " the Sun was dark- 
 ened, and withheld her light." He descended into 
 
79 
 
 Hell, and rose from the dead. His death and resur- 
 rection were celebrated in early spring, when victims 
 were nailed to a cross and shot with an arrow. 
 
 The cross was said to be the Tree of Nutri- 
 ment, or Tree of Life, — epithets applied by the 
 Roman Catholics to the cross. The rite of Baptism 
 was observed, and was believed to cleanse from sin. 
 Infants were baptized, that sin, which tainted the 
 child before the foundation of the world, might be 
 washed away, and the child be born anew. The 
 sacrament of the Eucharist was observed, the bread 
 being made of corn-meal mixed with blood ; which, 
 after consecration by the priest, was given to the 
 people as the flesh of their Saviour. (See Note i i.) 
 
 The Mexican idea of the Supreme God was sim- 
 ilar to the Hebrew. Like Jehovah, Tezcatlipoca 
 dwelt in the ''midst of thick darkness." No man 
 ever saw his face, for he appeared only as a shade. 
 When he descended upon the Mount of Tezcatepec, 
 darkness overshadowed the earth, while fire and 
 water, in mingled streams, flowed beneath his feet, 
 and from the summit. He was omnipresent and 
 omniscient, a being of absolute perfection and per- 
 fect purity. The Mexicans paid him great rever- 
 ence and adoration, and addressed, him, in their 
 prayers, as "Lord, whose servants we are." 
 
 In the annals of the Mexicans, the first woman, 
 whose name was translated by the old Spanish 
 writers " the woman of our flesh," is always repre- 
 sented as accompanied by a great male serpent, who 
 
8o 
 
 seems to be talking to her. By the Mexicans, she is 
 called Ysnextli, which signifies eyes blind with ashes. 
 By sinning, she lost Paradise, her crime being the 
 plucking of roses, called Fruta del arbal, — the fruit 
 of the tree. They declare that they are still unable 
 to look up to heaven on account of this fall. 
 
 The ancient Mexicans had a tradition of a deluge, 
 from which a person corresponding to Noah was 
 saved, with six others, in an ark, which landed on 
 a mountain, a bird being sent out to ascertain when 
 the waters had subsided. They also had a legend 
 of the building of a tower, which would reach to the 
 skies, their object being to see what was going on in 
 Heaven, and also to have a place of refuge in case 
 of another deluge. The gods beheld with wrath 
 this edifice, the top of which was nearing the clouds, 
 and they hurled fire from heaven upon it, which 
 threw it down and killed many of the workmen. 
 The work was then discontinued, as each family 
 interested in the building of the tower received a 
 language of its own, and the builders could not 
 understand each other. The ancient Mexicans 
 pointed to the ruins of a tower at Cholula, as evi- 
 dence of the truth of their story. 
 
 The disciples of Quetzalcoatle expected his second 
 advent. He told the inhabitants of Cholula that he 
 would return to govern them. This tradition was 
 deeply cherished by them ; and when the Spaniards, 
 with Cortez at their head, came to subdue the land, 
 the Mexicans implicitly believed that Quetzalcoatle 
 
Si 
 
 was returning, bringing his temples (the ships) with 
 him. 
 
 The annunciation of the Virgin Sochiquetzal was 
 the subject of a Mexican hieroglyphic. In this she 
 is represented as receiving from the ambassador, or 
 angel, a bunch of flowers. This brings to mind the 
 lotus, the sacred plant of the East, which is placed 
 in the hands of Pagan and Christian madonnas. 
 The resurrection of Quetzalcoatle is represented in 
 hieroglyphics. The cross was a very sacred symbol 
 with the Mexicans. 
 
 Heaven they located in the Sun, and the blessed 
 were permitted to revel amongst lovely clouds. 
 There was a hell for the wicked, and a sort of " quiet 
 limbo for those who were in no way distinguished." 
 Amongst their prayers or invocations were the 
 formulas : — 
 
 " Wilt thou blot us out, O Lord, forever ? Is this 
 punishment intended not for our reformation, but for 
 our destruction ? " Again : " Impart to us, out of 
 thy great mercy, thy gifts, which we are not worthy 
 to receive through our own merits." 
 
 " Keep peace with all." " Bear injuries with 
 humility ; God, who sees, will avenge you." These 
 were among their maxims. Also : " Clothe the 
 naked and feed the hungry, whatever privations it 
 may cost thee ; for, remember, their flesh is like 
 thine." A Spanish writer remarks that the Devil 
 had positively taught the Mexicans the same things 
 which God had imparted to Christendom. 
 6 
 
82 
 
 The Mexican temples — teocallis, or Houses of 
 God — were very numerous, there being several 
 hundreds in each of the principal cities of the king- 
 dom. There were long processions of priests, and 
 numerous festivals of unusual sacredness, as well as 
 appropriate monthly and daily celebrations of wor- 
 ship. The great cities were divided into districts, 
 each of which was placed under the charge of a sort 
 of parochial clergy, who regulated every act of relig- 
 ion within their precincts, and who administered the 
 rites of Confession and Absolution. The form of 
 absolution contained, among other things, the fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 Oh, merciful Lord, thou who knowest the secrets 
 of all hearts, let thy forgiveness and favor descend, 
 like the pure waters of Heaven, to wash away the 
 stains from the soul. Thou knowest that this poor 
 man has sinned, not from his own free will, but from 
 the influence of the sin under which he was born. 
 
 The Mayas, of Yucatan, had a virgin-born god, 
 corresponding entirely with Quetzalcoatle, if he was 
 not indeed the same under another name. The 
 Muyscas, of Colombia, had a similar god, who was 
 the incarnation of the Great Father, whose sover- 
 eignty and paternal care he emblematized. The 
 inhabitants of Nicaragua claimed that the son of 
 their principal god came down to earth and in- 
 structed them. There was a corresponding char- 
 acter in the traditionary history of Peru. The Sun, 
 
83 
 
 — the god of the Peruvians, — deploring their mis- 
 erable condition, sent down his son, Manco Capac, 
 to instruct them in religion. They believed in a 
 Trinity. In Brazil, besides the common belief in 
 an age of violence, during which the world was de- 
 stroyed by water, there is a tradition of a supernat- 
 ural being, called Zomo, whose history is similar to 
 that of Quetzalcoatle. The semi-civilized tribes of 
 Florida had like traditions. Among the savage 
 tribes the same notions prevailed. (See Note 12.) 
 
 The Edues of the Californians taught that there 
 is a supreme Creator, and that his son came 
 down to earth and instructed them in religion. 
 Finally, through hatred, the Indians killed him; 
 but, although dead, he is incorruptible and beauti- 
 ful. To him they pay adoration, as the mediatory 
 power between earth and the Supreme Niparaga. 
 They believed in a triune God. The Iroquois also 
 had a beneficent being, uniting in himself the char- 
 acter of a god and man, who imparted to them the 
 laws of the Great Spirit, and established their forms 
 of government. 
 
 Among the Algonquins, and particularly among 
 the Ojibways and other remnants of the Algonquin 
 stock, this intermediary teacher, denominated the 
 Great Incarnation of the Northwest, is fully recog- 
 nized. He bears the name of Michabou, is repre- 
 sented as the first-born son of a great celestial man- 
 itou, or spirit, by an earthly mother, and is esteemed 
 the friend and protector of the human race. 
 
84 
 
 The ancient Chaldees believed in a celestial vir- 
 gin, to whom the erring sinner could appeal. She 
 was represented as a mother with a child in her 
 arms. The ancient Assyrians and Babylonians wor- 
 shipped a goddess-mother and son. The mother's 
 name was Mylitta, and the son was Tammuz, or 
 Adonis, the Saviour, who was worshipped as the 
 Mediator. Tammuz was born on the twenty-fifth 
 of December, and, like other sun-gods, suffered and 
 was slain. The accounts of his death are conflict- 
 ing. One, however, states that he was crucified. 
 He descended into Hell ; he rose from the dead on 
 the third day, and ascended into Heaven. His wor- 
 shippers celebrated annually, in early spring, a 
 feast in commemoration of his death and resurrec- 
 tion, with the utmost display. An image, intended 
 as the representation of their Lord, was laid on a 
 bier and bewailed in mournful ditties ; precisely as 
 the Roman Catholics, at the present day, lament the 
 death of Jesus, in their Good Friday mass. During 
 the ceremony the priest murmured : " Trust ye in 
 your Lord, for the pains which he endured our sal- 
 vation have procured." This image was carried 
 with great solemnity to a tomb. The large wound 
 in the side was shown, just as, centuries later, the 
 wound was displayed which Christ received from the 
 spear-thrust. (See Note 13.) 
 
 After the attendants had for a long time bewailed 
 the death of this just person, he was at length 
 understood to be restored to life, — to have experi- 
 
85 
 
 enced a resurrection, signified by the readmission 
 of light. The people then exclaimed : " Hail to the 
 Dove ! the Restorer of Light." 
 
 The worshippers of Tammuz believed in the 
 Trinity, observed the rite of Baptism and the sacra- 
 ment of the bread and wine. The symbol of the 
 cross was honored by the ancient Babylonians, and 
 is found on their oldest monuments. 
 
 The Chaldeans had their Memra, or Word of 
 God, corresponding to the Greek Logos. In their 
 oracles the doctrine of the Only-Begotten Son, I. 
 A. O. (as Creator) is plainly taught. 
 
 The Babylonians had a myth of the Creation 
 and Fall of Man, which is almost identical with the 
 account contained in Genesis. As they had this 
 account fifteen hundred years or more before the 
 Hebrews heard of it the account in Genesis was 
 unquestionably taken from the Babylonians. Cunei- 
 form inscriptions, discovered by Mr. George Smith, 
 of the British Museum, show conclusively that the 
 Babylonians had this myth two thousand years 
 before the time assigned as the birth of Christ. 
 The myth appears to be a combination of the 
 phases of sun-worship which denoted the generating 
 power of the Sun. (See Note 14.) 
 
 The Babylonians had an account of a deluge, 
 which was very similar to the Hebrew account. 
 This was also on the terra-cotta tablets discovered 
 by Mr. Smith ; and is supposed to be a solar myth, 
 written, apparently, with a view to make a story. 
 
86 
 
 fitting to the sign of the zodiac, called Aquarius. 
 The Chaldeans were skilled astronomers, and, it is 
 said, they asserted that whenever all the planets 
 met in the sign Capricornus, the whole earth must 
 be overwhelmed with a deluge of water. 
 
 The Babylonians had a legend of the Building 
 of the Tower of Babel, which antedates the 
 Hebrew account. A tower in Babylonia, which was 
 evidently built for astronomical purposes, appears to 
 have been the foundation for the legend. This was 
 also described on the terra-cotta tablets discovered 
 by Mr. Smith. The tower was called the Sta^s 
 of the Seven Spheres ; and each one of these 
 stages was consecrated to the Sun, Moon, Saturn, 
 Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. Nebuchado- 
 nazar says of it, in his cylinders : — 
 
 The building, named the Stages of the Seven 
 Spheres, which was the tower of Borsippa [Babel], 
 had been built by a former king. He had com- 
 pleted forty-two cubits, but did not finish its head. 
 From the lapse of time it had become ruined . . . 
 Merodach, my great Lord, inclined my heart to 
 repair the building. 
 
 There is not a word in these cylinders touching 
 the confusion of tongues, or of anything pertaining 
 thereto. It appears from other sources that the 
 word Babel, which is really Bab-il (the Gate of God), 
 was erroneously supposed to be from the root i/ada/ 
 — /o confuse; and hence arises the mystical ex- 
 
^7 
 
 \ planation that Babel was a place where human 
 "^ speech became confused. 
 
 The ancient Babylonians had a legend, some two 
 thousand years B.C., of a mighty man, Izdubar, who 
 was a lion-slayer. From this legend the Hebrews 
 probably obtained their story of Samson. The 
 legend is without doubt a sun-myth. The Assyr- 
 ians worshipped a sun-god named Sandon, who was 
 believed to be a lion-killer, and was frequently 
 figured as struggling with the lion, or standing upon 
 the slain lion. 
 
 The Chaldeans had an account of one Zerban 
 (rich in gold)^ which corresponds in many respects 
 to the account of Abraham. The Assyrians had an 
 account of a War in Heaven, which was like that 
 described in the Book of Enoch and the Apocalypse. 
 
 " It seems," says Mr. George Smith, " from the 
 indications in the inscriptions [the cuneiform], that 
 there happened, in the interval between 2000 and 
 1850 B.C., a general collection [by the Babylonians] 
 of the development of the various traditions of the 
 Creation, Flood, Tower of Babel, and other similar 
 legends. These legends were, however, traditions 
 before they were committed to writing, and were 
 common, in some form, to all the country." 
 
 The Hebrews undoubtedly became familiar with 
 these legends of the Babylonians, during their cap- 
 tivity in Chaldea, and afterwards wrote them as 
 their own history. 
 
 It is a fact, demonstrated by history, that when 
 
88 
 
 one nation of antiquity came into contact with 
 another, each adopted the other's myths without 
 hesitation. The tendency of myths to reproduce 
 themselves, with differences only of names and 
 local coloring, becomes especially manifest as we 
 peruse the legendary history of antiquity. 
 
 It is said of the ancient Hebrews, that they adopted 
 forms, terms, ideas, and myths of other nations, 
 with whom they came in contact, and cast them all 
 in a peculiar Jewish religious mould. 
 
 " The opinion that the Pagan religions were cor- 
 ruptions of the religion of the Old Testament, once 
 supported by men of high authority and great learn- 
 ing, is now," in the words of Professor Miiller, " as 
 completely surrendered, as the attempts of explaining 
 Greek and Latin as the corruptions of Hebrew." 
 
 The Hebrew was a Semitic race, and consequently 
 had inherited none of the Aryan myths and legends. 
 
 From the time of Moses till the time of the 
 prophet Hezekiah, a period of seven hundred years 
 or more, the Hebrews were idolaters, as their records 
 show. The serpent was reverenced as the Healer 
 of the Nation ; they worshipped a bull called Apis, 
 as did the Egyptians ; they worshipped the sun, 
 moon, stars, and all the hosts of heaven ; they wor- 
 shipped fire, and kept it burning on an altar, as did 
 the Persians and other nations ; they worshipped 
 stones, revered an oak-tree, and bowed down to 
 images ; they worshipped a virgin mother and 
 child ; they worshipped Baal, Moloch, and Chemosh 
 
89 
 
 (names given to the sun), and offered up human 
 sacrifices to them, after which, in some' instances, 
 they ate the victim. The Hebrews only began to 
 abandon their gross Syrian idolatries after their 
 Eastern captivity. Then also they began to collate 
 the legends they had acquired, and write what 
 they term history. It was not until this time that 
 the dogmas about Satan, the angels Michael, Uriel, 
 Yar, Nisan, the Rebel Angels, the Battle in Heaven, 
 the Immortality of the Soul, and the Resurrection 
 of the Dead, were introduced and naturalized among 
 the Jews. 
 
 The theory that man was originally created a per- 
 fect being, and is now only a fallen and depraved 
 remnant of his original self, must be abandoned, 
 with the belief that the account of the creation in 
 Genesis was not a revelation direct from God to the 
 Hebrews. 
 
 With the abandonment of this theor}^, the whole 
 Orthodox scheme must be abandoned ; for upon this 
 mylh the theology of Christendom is built. The 
 doctrines of the Inspiration of the Scriptures, the 
 Fall of Man, his Total Depravity, the Incarnation, the 
 Atonement, the Devil, Hell, — in fact, the entire the- 
 ology of the Christian church, — fall to pieces with 
 the inaccuracy of this story. 
 
 According to Christian dogma, the Incarnation of 
 Christ had become necessary, on account of Sin, 
 which was introduced into the world by the Fall of 
 Man. These two dogmas cannot be separated. If 
 
90 
 
 there was no Fall, there was no need of an Atone- 
 ment, and no Redeemer was required. 
 
 Jesus Christ saves men as he helps them, by his 
 teachings and example, to live pure and upright 
 lives. 
 
 As far as we can judge, Jesus himself did not as- 
 sert that he was equal to, or a part of, the Supreme 
 God. Indeed, whenever occasion arose, he asserted 
 his inferiority to the Father. He made himself in- 
 ferior in knowledge, when he declared, that of the 
 day and hour of the Judgment, nQ_man knew, — 
 neither the angels in Heaven nor the Son, — no one 
 except the Father. He made himself inferior in 
 power, when he said that seats on his right hand and 
 on his left, in the Kingdom of Heaven, were not his 
 to give. He made himself inferior in virtue, when 
 he desired a certain man not to address him as 
 Good Master, for there was none good but God. 
 The words of his prayer at Gethsemane, " all things 
 are possible unto thee," imply that all things were not 
 possible to himself ; while its conclusion, " not what I 
 will, but what thou wilt," indicates submission to a 
 superior. The cry of agony, " My God ! My God ! 
 why hast thou forsaken me ? " would have been quite 
 unmeaning, if the person forsaken and the person 
 forsaking had been one and the same. 
 
 As was the case with Sakya Muni, and many 
 others, the sun-myths were incorporated into the 
 history of Jesus Christ. 
 
 There is much circumstantial evidence to show 
 
91 
 
 that Jesus was an Essene, and that the Essenes 
 were Buddhists. At the time of Christ's birth, the 
 Jews were divided into three sects — the Pharisees, 
 the Essenes, and the Sadducees, — the last only being 
 purely Mosaic, and the first two being very like the 
 Buddhists. That Buddhism had been planted in the 
 dominions of the Seleucidae and Ptolemies (Pales- 
 tine belonging to the former) before the beginning 
 of the third century B.C. is proved by a passage in 
 the Edicts of Asoka, grandson of the famous Chan- 
 dragupta, the Sandracottus of the Greeks. These 
 edicts are engraven on a rock at Girnur, in Guzerat. 
 The great missionary effort of Buddhism took place 
 in the time of Asoka, about B.C. 307, and it was not 
 likely that the west would be neglected when the 
 eastern countries received such attention as they 
 did. The Buddhist missionaries, without doubt, 
 made their way to the Hebrews, who had always 
 shown a great aptitude to adopt the faith of out- 
 siders, and persuaded many of them to listen to the 
 teachings of Siddhartha ; but they were unable to 
 convert them sufficiently to induce them to give up 
 the Law of Moses. (See Note 15.) 
 
 The Essenes were a sect of unusual and singular 
 piety, their exemplary virtues eliciting the unbounded 
 admiration of even the Greeks and Romans. Severe 
 asceticism, a rare benevolence to one another and 
 to mankind in general, were their most striking 
 characteristics. Their fundamental laws were, to 
 love God and their neighbor, and do to others as 
 
 
92 
 
 they would have others do to them. They lived in 
 communities or monasteries, and had all things in 
 common, merely appointing a steward to manage the 
 common bag. 
 
 They advocated celibacy, but had no law prohibit- 
 ing marriage ; though if any among them wedded, 
 they were obliged to enter another class of the 
 brotherhood. Their numbers were continually be- 
 ing augmented by additions from outside. When 
 a person wished to enter the community, he was 
 taken upon trial ; and, if approved, he was obliged 
 to take an oath that he would fear God and be just 
 towards all men. He sold all that he possessed, 
 and gave the proceeds to the brotherhood. They 
 resembled, in their habits and customs, a fraternity 
 of monks — of a working, rather than a mendicant 
 order. They were all upon the same level, the 
 exercise of authority one over another being pro- 
 hibited. They abhorred slavery, and called no man 
 on earth Master, yet they served one another. 
 When going upon missions of mercy, they provided 
 neither silver nor gold, but depended entirely upon 
 the hospitality of other members of the brotherhood. 
 When going upon perilous journeys, they took 
 weapons of defence, but repudiated offensive war. 
 They abjured swearing. They conversed on such 
 parts of philosophy only as concerned God and 
 man, and conversed not at all on secular subjects 
 before the rising of the Sun, but prayed devoutly, 
 with their faces turned to the._£a§t. They did not 
 
93 
 
 lay up treasures on earth, and despised money, 
 fame, and pleasures, as they thought these things 
 had a tendency to enchain men to earthly enjoy- 
 ments, — a peculiarly Buddhist tenet. They consid- 
 ered the use of ointment as defiling, which was cer- 
 tainly not a Hebraic doctrine. They gave thanks 
 before and after eating; and before entering the 
 refectory they bathed in pure water and put on 
 white garments. They ate only enough to sustain 
 life. They put the greatest stress upon being 
 meek and lowly in heart, and commended the poor 
 in spirit, those who hunger and thirst after right- 
 eousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the 
 peacemaker. 
 
 The Essenes combined the healing of the body 
 with that of the soul ; and the Greek name by 
 which they were known, Therapeutae (Essene is the 
 Assyrian word for Therapeutae), signifies healer, or 
 doctor^ and designated the sect as professing to be 
 endowed with the miraculous gift of healing, — more 
 especially with respect to diseases of the mind. 
 They did not offer animal sacrifices, but strove to 
 present their bodies " a living sacrifice, holy and 
 acceptable unto God." It was their great aim to 
 become so pure and holy as to be temples of the 
 Holy Spirit, and to be able to prophesy. They 
 reverenced Moses and had respect for the Sabbath. 
 They practised endurance as a duty, and bore all 
 tortures with equanimity. They fully believed in a 
 future state of existence, in which the soul, liberated 
 
94 
 
 from the body, mounts upwards to a Paradise where 
 there are no storms, no cold, no intense heat, and 
 where all are constantly refreshed by gentle ocean- 
 breezes. Pliny tells us that the usages of the Essenes 
 differed from those of all other nations. 
 
 It will be evident to those familiar with the Gos- 
 pels that the tenets of the Essenes and the teach- 
 ings of Jesus are almost identical. Jesus differed 
 from them, however, in some respects, as any large 
 nature is apt to differ from others. He repudiated 
 the extremes of the Essenes. They were ascetics, 
 but he ate and drank the good things of life. They 
 considered themselves defiled by contact with those 
 less holy than themselves; but he associated with 
 publicans and sinners. 
 
 Every Jew was obliged to be a member of one of 
 the three sects named above, and it is but natural 
 to suppose that Jesus would have been more in 
 sympathy with the Essenes than with the other two 
 Jewish sects. It is a significant fact that he fre- 
 quently rebuked the Sadducees and Pharisees, but 
 never denounced the Essenes. 
 
 As we have seen, the Essenes were ascetics and 
 celibates, while the purely Mosaic of Jews were 
 neither. It is true that fasting is occasionally men- 
 tioned in the Old Testament, as a sign of grief or 
 of abasement, but never as a means of gaining 
 salvation in a future life, — for immortality was 
 unknown to Moses and the Jews ; while celibacy is 
 everywhere spoken of in the Old Testament as a 
 
95 
 
 misiortune, and an abundance of wives is regarded 
 as a proof of divine favor. '■ 
 
 The Jews were encouraged in having a plurality 
 of wives, but they were nowhere directed or, recom- 
 mended to live on charity. The Priests and Levites 
 were not ordered to go about the country expounding 
 or teaching the Law. Consequently, when asceti- 
 cism, preaching, and celibacy began to be advocated, 
 between the time of Antiochus and Jesus, the infer- 
 ence is that they were introduced from without, and 
 by those of the only religion which inculcated them 
 as articles of faith and practice. 
 
 It appears singular that there should be no men- 
 tion of the Essenes in the JN"ew Testament, consider- 
 ing the fact that the other two Jewish sects were so 
 frequently spoken of. This can only be accounted 
 for on the ground that the multitude of references in 
 the New Testament to a class called the Brethren, 
 refer to the Essenes. The Essenes were a brother- 
 hood, and knew each other as brethren, as the Free 
 Masons, who claim descent from the Essenes, do at 
 the present day. We are told that the disciples were 
 first called Christians at Antioch. They must have 
 had a name previous to that, and we know they ad- 
 dressed each other as brethren. 
 
 As De Quincey says : " If the Essenes were not the 
 early Christians in disguise, then was Christianity, 
 as a knowledge, taught independently of Christ, — nay, 
 in opposition to Christ." ^ This would explain the 
 
 1 Historical and Critical Essays, p. ii6. Boston : 1853. 
 
96 
 
 very singular fact that Josephus has not mentioned 
 Christ or the early Christians. The Essenes dis- 
 appeared from history shortly after the time assigned 
 as the crucifixion of Christ, and it is supposed that 
 they have come down in history as Christians. Eu- 
 sebius, Bishop of Caesarea, the celebrated ecclesiasti- 
 cal historian, considered them Christians. He says : 
 " It is very likely that the commentaries [Scriptures] 
 which were among them [the Essenes] were the 
 Gospels, and the works of the apostles, and certain 
 expositions of the ancient prophets, such as partly 
 that Epistle unto the Hebrews and also the other 
 Epistles of Paul do contain." i 
 
 Eusebius, in quoting from Philo concerning the 
 Essenes, seems to take it for granted that they and 
 the Christians were one and the same ; and from the 
 manner in which he writes, it would appear that it 
 was generally understood so. He says that Philo 
 called them *' worshippers," and concludes by say- 
 ing : " But whether he himself gave them this name, 
 or whether at the beginning they were so called 
 when as yet the name of Christians was not every- 
 where published, I think it not needful curiosity to 
 sift out." 2 
 
 Epiphanius, a Christian bishop and writer of the 
 fourth century, in speaking of the Essenes, says : 
 " They who believed on Christ were called Jessaei [or 
 Essenes] before they were called Christians. They 
 
 1 Hist. Eccl., lib. 2, ch. xvii. London : 1637. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
97 
 
 derived their constitution from the signification of 
 the name 'Jesus/ which in Hebrew signifies the same 
 as Therapeutes, that is, a saviour or physician." ^ 
 Godfrey Higgins says : — 
 
 The Essenes were called physicians of the soul, 
 or Therapeutae ; being resident both in Judaea and 
 Egypt, they probably spoke or had their sacred 
 books in Chaldee. They were Pythagoreans, as is 
 proved by all their forms, ceremonies, and doctrines, 
 and they called themselves sons of Jesse. ... If the 
 Pythagoreans, or Conenobitae, as they were called 
 by Jamblicus, were Buddhists, the Essenes were 
 Buddhists. The Essenes called Koinobii lived in 
 Egypt, on the lake of Parembole or Maria, in mon- 
 asteries. These are the very places in which we 
 formerly found the Gymnosophists or Samaneans, or 
 Buddhist priests, to have lived, which Gymnosophists 
 are placed also by Ptolemy in northeastern India. 
 
 Their [the Essenes] parishes, churches, bishops, 
 priests, deacons, festivals are all identically the same 
 [as the Christians]. They had apostolic founders, 
 the manners which distinguished the immediate apos- 
 tles of Christ, scriptures divinely inspired, the same 
 allegorical mode of interpreting them which has 
 since obtained among Christians, and the same or- 
 der of performing public worship. They had mis- 
 sionary stations or colonies of their community 
 established in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, 
 
 1 Doane, Bible Myths, p. 426. New York: 1883. 
 7 
 
98 
 
 Philippi, Colosse, and Thessalonica, precisely such 
 and in the same circumstances, as were those to 
 whom Saint Paul addressed his letters in those 
 places. All the fine moral doctrines which are 
 attributed to the Samaritan Nazarite, and I doubt 
 not justly attributed to him, are to be found among 
 the doctrines of the ascetics.-^ 
 
 In reference to this subject, Arthur Lillie says : — 
 
 It is asserted by calm thinkers like Dean Mansel, 
 that within two generations of the time of Alexander 
 the Great, the missionaries of Buddha made their 
 appearance at Alexandria. This theory is confirmed 
 in the east by the Asoka monuments, in the west 
 by Philo. He expressly maintains the identity in 
 creed of the higher Judaism and that of the Gym- 
 nosophists of India who abstained from the " sacri- 
 fice of living animals," — in a word, the Buddhists. 
 It would follow from this that the priestly religions of 
 Babylonia, Palestine, Egypt, and Greece were under- 
 mined by certain kindred mj^stical societies organ- 
 ized by Buddha's missionaries under the various 
 names of Therapeutes, Essenes, Neo-Pythagoreans, 
 Neo-Zoroastrians, etc. Thus Buddhism prepared 
 the way for Christianity.^ 
 
 We find Saint Paul, the first Apostle of the Gen- 
 tiles, avowing that he was made a minister of the 
 
 1 Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 747, vol. ii. p. 43. London : 1827. 
 
 2 Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. vi. London: 1881. 
 
99 
 
 Gospel which had already been preached to every 
 creature under heaven,^ and preaching a God mani- 
 fest in the flesh, who had been believed on in the 
 world, — therefore before the commencement of his 
 ministry, — and who could not have been Jesus of 
 Nazareth, who had certainly not been preached at 
 that time, nor generally believed on in the world till 
 ages after. Saint Paul owns himself a deacon, which 
 is the lowest ecclesiastical grade of the Therapeutan 
 church. " The Gospel of which Paul's Epistles speak 
 had been extensively preached and fully established 
 before the time of Jesus by the Therapeutae or Es- 
 senes, who believed in the doctrine of the Angel- 
 Messiah, the ^on from heaven ; the doctrine of 
 the ' Anointed Angel,' of the man from heaven, the 
 Creator of the world ; the doctrine of the atoning 
 sacrificial death of Jesus by the blood of his cross ; 
 the doctrine of the Messianic antetype of the Paschal 
 lamb and of the Paschal omer, and thus of the re- 
 surrection of Jesus Christ the third day according 
 to the Scriptures, — these doctrines of Paul can 
 with more or less certainty be connected with the 
 Essenes. ... It becomes almost a certainty that 
 Eusebius was right in surmising that Essenic writ- 
 ings have been used by Paul and the evangelists. 
 Not Jesus, but Paul, is the cause of the separation 
 of the Jews from the Christians.'"^ 
 
 The very ancient and Eastern doctrine of an Angel- 
 
 1 Colossians i. 23. 
 
 2 Bunsen, Angel-Messiah, p. 240. London : 1867. 
 
100 
 
 Messiah had been applied to Gautama-Buddha, who 
 predicted that another Avatar would come upon earth 
 in six hundred years after his death. This time had 
 nearly expired; so Jesus of Nazareth was proclaimed 
 as the expected Messiah by these Buddhist Jews, 
 and the sun-myths were interwoven with his real 
 history. Jesus unquestionably possessed a nature 
 as divine as it is possible for a human being to pos- 
 sess, or he would not otherwise have been received 
 as the Angel-Messiah by a sect so pure and holy as 
 were the Essenes. 
 
 Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho, says 
 that there exist not a people, civilized or semi-civi- 
 lized, who have not offered up prayers in the name 
 of a crucified Saviour to the Father and Creator of 
 all things.^ 
 
 Eusebius says that the names of Jesus and Christ 
 were both known and honored by the ancients.^ 
 
 The Rev. Robert Taylor, in writing upon this 
 subject, says : — 
 
 What short of an absolute surrender of all pre- 
 tence to an existence distinctive and separate from 
 Paganism is that never-to-be-forgotten, never-to-be- 
 overlooked, and I am sure never-to-be-answered ca- 
 pitulation of their [the Christians'] Melito, Bishop 
 of Sardis, in which in an apology delivered to the 
 emperor, Marcus Antoninus, in the year 170, he com- 
 
 1 Hist. Eccl., lib. i. ch. iv. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
lOI 
 
 plains of certain annoyances and vexations which 
 Christians were at that time subjected to, and for 
 which he claims redress from the justice and piety 
 of that emperor : first, on the score that none of his 
 ancestors had ever persecuted the professors of the 
 Christian faith ; Nero and Domitian only, who had 
 been equally hostile to their subjects of all persua- 
 sions, having been disposed to bring the Christian 
 doctrine into hatred, and even their decrees had 
 been reversed, and their rash enterprises rebuked, 
 by the godly ancestors of Antoninus himself. . . . 
 And secondly, the good bishop claims the patronage 
 of the emperor for the Christian religion, which he 
 calls our philosophy, on account of its high antiquity^ 
 as having been imported from countries lying beyond 
 the limits of the Roman empire, in the reign of his 
 ancestor Augustus, who found its importation omi- 
 nous of good fortune to his government.^ 
 
 Saint Augustine says : " That in our times is the 
 Christian Religion, which to know and follow is 
 the most sure and certain health, called according to 
 that name, but not according to the thing itself, of 
 which it is the name ; for the thing itself which is 
 now called the Christian Religion really was 
 known to the ancients, nor was wanting at any time 
 from the beginning of the human race until the time 
 when Christ came in the flesh, from whence the true 
 religion, which had previously existed, began to be 
 
 * Diegesis, p. 249. Boston : 1872. 
 
102 
 
 called Christian ; and this in our days is the Chris- 
 tian religion, not as having been wanting in former 
 times, but as having in later times received this 
 name." ^ 
 
 Eusebius, the great champion of Christianity, 
 admits that "that which is called the Christian 
 religion is neither new nor strange, but — if it 
 be lawful to testify the truth — was known to the 
 ancients." ^ 
 
 Ammonius Saccus (a Greek philosopher, founder 
 of the Neoplatonic school) taught that Christianity 
 and Paganism, when rightly understood, differ in no 
 essential points, but had a common origin, and are 
 really one and the same religion.^ 
 
 Celsus, the Epicurean philosopher, wrote that 
 " the Christian religion contains nothing but what 
 Christians hold in common with heathen ; nothing 
 new." * 
 
 Justin explains this in the following manner : — 
 
 It having reached the Devil's ears that the prophets 
 had foretold that Christ would come ... he [the 
 Devil] set the heathen poets to bring forward a great 
 many who should be called sons of Jove [that is, the 
 sons of God] ; the Devil laying his scheme in this to 
 get men 'to imagine that the true histoB^r of Christ 
 
 1 Opera Augustini, vol. i. p. 12. Quoted in Taylor's Diege- 
 sis, p. 42. 
 
 2 Hist. Eccl., lib. 2, ch. v. 
 8 Taylor, Diegesis, p. 329. 
 
 * Justin, Apol. 2. See Bellamy's trans., p. 49. 
 
103 
 
 was of the same character as the prodigious fables 
 and poetic stories.^, 
 
 Julius Firmicius says, " The Devil has his 
 Christs." 2 
 
 The following remarkable passage has been pre- 
 served to us by Mosheim, the ecclesiastical historian, 
 in the life of Saint Gregory, surnamed Thaumatur- 
 gus, that is, " the wonder-worker " : — 
 
 When Gregory perceived that the simple and un- 
 skilled multitude persisted in their worship of images, 
 on account of the pleasure and sensual gratifications 
 which they enjoyed at the Pagan festivals, he granted 
 them a permission to indulge themselves in the like 
 pleasures in celebrating the memory of the holy 
 martyrs, hoping that in process of time they would 
 return, of their own accord, to a more virtuous and 
 regular course of life.^ 
 
 Gregory of Nazianzus, writing to Saint Jerome, 
 says : " A little jargon is all that is necessary to im- 
 pose on the people. The less they comprehend the 
 more they admire. Our forefathers and doctors 
 have often said, not what they thought, but what 
 circumstances and necessity dictated."^ 
 
 1 Justin, Apol. 2. 
 
 2 Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 164. 
 
 3 Mosheim, vol. i. cent. 2, p. 202. 
 
 * Hieron ad. Nep. Quoted in Volney's Ruins, p. 177, note. 
 Boston : 1872. 
 
104 
 
 Eusebius, who is our chief guide for the early his- 
 tory of the Church, confesses that he was by no means 
 scrupulous to record the whole truth concerning the 
 early Christians in the various works which he has 
 left behind him.^ Edward Gibbon, speaking of him, 
 says : — 
 
 The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Euse- 
 bius himself, indirectly confesses that he has related 
 what might redound to the glory, and that he has 
 suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace, of 
 religion. Such an acknowledgment will naturally 
 excite a suspicion that a writer who has so openly 
 violated one of the fundamental laws of history 
 has not paid a very strict regard to the observance 
 of the other ; and the suspicion will derive addi- 
 tional credit from the character of Eusebius, which 
 was less tinctured with credulity, and more practised 
 in the arts of courts, than that of almost any of his 
 contemporaries. ^ 
 
 Isaac de Casaubon, the great ecclesiastical scholar, 
 says : — 
 
 It mightily affects me to see how many there were 
 in the earliest times of the Church, who considered it 
 as a capital exploit to lend to heavenly truth the 
 help of their own inventions, in order that the new 
 doctrine might be more readily received by the wise 
 
 1 Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., ch. viii. p. 21. 
 
 2 Gibbon, Rome, vol. ii. pp. 79, 80. Philadelphia: 1876. 
 
105 
 
 among the Gentiles. These officious lies, they were 
 wont to say, were devised for a good end. ^ 
 
 Caecilius, in the Octavius of Minucius Felix, says : — 
 
 All these fragments of crack-brained opiniatry and 
 silly solaces played off in the sweetness of song by 
 deceitful [Pagan] poets, by you too credulous crea- 
 tures [that is, the Christians] have been shamefully 
 reformed and made over to your own god. 
 
 Faustus, writing to Saint Augustine, says : — 
 
 You have substituted your agapae for the sacri- 
 fices of -the Pagans ; for their idols your martyrs, 
 whom you serve with the very same honors. You 
 appease the shades of the dead with wine and feasts ; 
 you celebrate the solemn festivals of the Gentiles, 
 their calends, and their solstices ; and as to their 
 manners, those you have retained without any altera- 
 tion. Nothing distinguishes you from the Pagans, 
 except that you hold your assemblies apart from 
 them.^ 
 
 The learned Christian advocate, M. Turretin, in 
 describing the state of Christianity in the fourth cen- 
 tury, says " that it was not so much the empire that 
 was brought over to the faith, as the faith that was 
 
 1 Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 44. 
 
 '^ Quoted by Draper in Science and Religion, p. 48. New 
 York: 1876. 
 
 / 
 
[o6 
 
 brought over to the empire ; not the Pagans who were 
 converted to Christianity, but Christianity that was 
 converted to Paganism." ^ 
 
 Edward Gibbon says in regard to this matter : — 
 
 It must be confessed that the ministers of the 
 Catholic Church imitated the profane model which 
 they were impatient to destroy. The most respecta- 
 ble bishops had persuaded themselves that the ig- 
 norant rustics would more cheerfully renounce the 
 superstitions of Paganism if they found some re- 
 semblance, some compensation, in the bosom of 
 Christianity. The religion of Constantine achieved 
 in less than a century the final conquest of the Roman 
 empire ; but the victors themselves were insensibly 
 subdued by the arts of their vanquished rivals.'^ 
 
 Tertullian, one of the Christian Fathers (a. d. 200), 
 originally a Pagan, and at one time Presbyter of the 
 Christian Church in Africa, reasons in the following 
 manner on the evidences of Christianity : — 
 
 I find no other means to prove myself to be im- 
 pudent with success, and happily a fool, than by my 
 contempt of shame, — as, for instance, I maintain 
 that the Son of God was born. Why am I not 
 ashamed of maintaining such a thing? Why, but 
 because it is itself a shameful thing. I maintain 
 that the Son of God died. Well, that is wholly 
 
 ^ Taylor, Diegesis, p. 50. 
 
 2 Gibbon, Rome, vol. iii. p. 163. 
 
I07 
 
 credible, because it is monstrously absurd. I main- 
 tain that after having been buried he rose again ; and 
 that I take to be manifestly true, because it was 
 manifestly impossible.'^ 
 
 The early Christians were charged with being a 
 sect of sun-worshippers.^ The Emperor Hadrian 
 could see no difference between them and the fol- 
 lowers of the ancient Egyptian god Serapis, who was 
 the Sun. In a letter to the Consul Servianus, the Em- 
 peror says : ^' There are there [in Egypt] Christians 
 who worship Serapis and devoted to Serapis are 
 those who call themselves ' Bishops of Christ.' " ^ 
 
 Mr. King, in speaking of Serapis and his worship- 
 pers, says : " There is very good reason to believe 
 that in the East the worship of Serapis was at first 
 combined with Christianity, and gradually merged 
 into it, with an entire change of name, no^ substancey 
 carrying with it many of its ancient notions and 
 rites." ^ 
 
 Again he says : *' In the second century the syn- 
 cretistic sects that had sprung up in Alexandria, the 
 very hotbed of Gnosticism, found out in Serapis a 
 prophetic type of Christ, or the Lord and Creator of 
 all." * 
 
 1 Taylor, Diegesis, p. 326. 
 
 2 Bonwick, Egyptian Belief, p. 283. 
 
 3 Giles, Hebrew and Christian Records, vol. ii. p. 86. Lon- 
 don : 1877. 
 
 * King, Gnostics, p. 48. London : 1864. 
 5 Ibid , p 68. 
 
[o8 
 
 In regard to the charge of sun-worship, Mr. Bon- 
 wick observes: "There were many circumstances 
 that gave color to the accusation, since in the second 
 century they had left the simple teaching of Jesus 
 for a host of assimilations with surrounding Pagan 
 myths and symbols. Still, the defence made by Ter- 
 tuUian, one of the Fathers of the Church, was, to 
 say the least of it, rather obscure. ' Others,' wrote he, 
 * believe the sun to be our god. If this be so, we 
 must not be ranked with the Persians; though we wor- 
 ship not the sun painted on a piece of linen, because 
 in truth we have him in our own hemisphere. Lastly, 
 this suspicion arises from hence because it is well 
 known that we pray toward the quarter of the east.' " ^ 
 
 The Essenes always turned to the east to pray. 
 They met once a week, and spent the night in sing- 
 ing hymns, etc., until the rising of the sun. They 
 then retired to their cells, after saluting one another. 
 Pliny says the Christians of Bithynia met before it was 
 light, and sang hymns to Christ, as to a God. After 
 their service they saluted one another. It is just 
 what the Persian Magi, who were sun-worshippers, 
 were in the habit of doing. 
 
 There are not many circumstances more striking 
 than that of Christ being originally worshipped under 
 the form of a lamb. The worship of the constella- 
 tion Aries was the worship of the sun in his passage 
 through that sign.^ This constellation was called by 
 
 1 Egyptian Belief, p. 282. London : 1878. 
 
 2 Bible Myths, p. 503. 
 
109 
 
 the ancients the Lamb, or the Ram. It was also called 
 '* the Saviour," and was said to save mankind from 
 their sins. It was always honored with the appella- 
 tion of DominuSy or " Lord." It was called by the 
 ancients " the Lamb of God which taketh away the 
 sins of the world." The devotees addressed it in 
 their litany, constantly repeating the words, " O Lamb 
 of God, that taketh away the sins of the world, have 
 mercy upon us ; grant us thy peace." 
 
 On an ancient medal of the Phoenicians, brought 
 by Dr. Clark from Citium (and described in his 
 " Travels," vol. ii. ch. xi.), this " Lamb of God " is 
 described with the cross and rosary. 
 
 Yearly the sun-god, as the zodiacal horse (Aries), 
 was supposed by the Vedic Aryans to die to save all 
 flesh. Hence the practice of sacrificing horses. The 
 " guardian spirits " of the Prince Sakya Buddha sing 
 the following hymn : — 
 
 Once, when thou wast the white horse, 
 
 In pity for the sufferings of man, 
 
 Thou didst fly across heaven to the region of the evil demons, 
 
 To serve the happiness of mankind. 
 
 Persecutions without end, 
 
 Revilings and many prisons, 
 
 Death and murder, — 
 
 These hast thou suffered with love and patience, 
 
 Forgiving thine executioners.^ 
 
 Although Buddha is said to have expired peacefully 
 at the foot of a tree, he is nevertheless described as 
 
 1 Buddha and Early Buddhism, p. 93. 
 
no 
 
 a suffering Saviour, who, when his mind was moved 
 with pity, gave his hfe Uke grass for the sake of 
 others.-^ 
 
 The oldest representation of Jesus Christ is a 
 figure of a lamb,'-^ to which sometimes a vase was 
 added, into which the blood of the lamb flowed. A 
 simple cross, which was the symbol of eternal life 
 among the ancients, was sometimes placed alongside 
 of the lamb. In the course of time the lamb was put 
 on the cross, as the ancient Israelites had put the 
 Paschal lamb centuries before. Jesus was also repre- 
 sented in early art as the "Good Shepherd," — that 
 is, as a young man with a lamb on his shoulders, just 
 as the Pagan Apollo, Mercury, and others were 
 represented centuries before. 
 
 Early Christian art, such as the bas-reliefs on sar- 
 cophagi, gave but one solitary incident from the story 
 of Our Lord's Passion, and that utterly divested of 
 all circumstances of suffering. Our Lord is repre- 
 sented as young and beautiful, free from bonds, with 
 no " accursed tree " on his shoulders.^ 
 
 The crucifixion is not one of the subjects of 
 early Christianity. The death of our Lord was repre- 
 sented by various types, but never in its actual form. 
 The earliest instances of the crucifixion are found 
 in illustrated manuscripts of various countries, and 
 in ivory and enamelled images. Some of these are 
 
 1 Max Miiller, Science of Religion, p, 224. London : 1873. 
 
 2 Jameson, Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. p. 137. London : 1864. 
 ' Ibid., vol. ii. p. 317. 
 
Ill 
 
 ascertained, by historical or by internal evidence, to 
 have been executed in the ninth century. There is 
 one also, of an extraordinarily rude and fantastic 
 character, in a manuscript in the ancient library of 
 St. Galle, which is ascertained to be of the eighth 
 century. At all events, there seems to be no just 
 ground at present for assigning an earlier date.^ 
 
 Not until the pontificate of Agathon (a. d. 608) 
 was Christ represented as a man on a cross. Dur- 
 ing the reign of Constantine Pogonatus, by the Sixth 
 Synod of Constantinople (Canon 82) it was ordained 
 that instead of the ancient symbol, which had been 
 the lamb, the figure of a man nailed to a cross 
 should be represented. All this was confirmed by 
 Pope Adrian I.^ 
 
 Rev. J. P. Lundy, in speaking of the fact that there 
 are no early representations of Jesus suffering on the 
 cross, says : " Why should a fact so well known to 
 the heathen as the crucifixion be concealed ? And 
 yet its actual realistic representation never once oc- 
 curs in the monuments of Christianity for more than 
 six or seven centuries." * 
 
 The holy Father Minucius Felix, in his Octavius, 
 written as late as a. d. 211, indignantly resents the 
 supposition that the sign of the cross should be con- 
 sidered exclusively a Christian symbol ; and represents 
 his advocate of the Christian argument as retorting 
 
 ^ Jameson, Our Lord in Art, vol. ii. p. 137. 
 
 2 Quoted in Higc^ins's Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 3. 
 
 3 Monumental Christianity, p. 246. New York : 1876. 
 
112 
 
 on an infidel opponent thus : " As for the adoration 
 of crosses which you [Pagans] object to against us 
 [Christians], I must tell you that we neither adore 
 crosses nor desire them ; you it is, ye Pagans, who 
 worship wooden gods, who are the most likely people 
 to adore wooden crosses, as being parts of the same 
 substance as your deities. For what else are your 
 ensigns, flags, and standards, but crosses, gilt and 
 beautified ? Your victorious trophies not only repre- 
 sent a cross, but a cross with a man upon it." ^ 
 
 Tertullian, a Christian Father of the second and 
 third centuries, in writing to the Pagans, says : — 
 
 The origin of your gods is derived from figures 
 moulded on a cross. All those rows of images on 
 your standards are the appendages of crosses ; those 
 hangings on your standards and banners are the 
 robes of crosses.^ 
 
 It would appear that the crucifixion was not com- 
 monly believed in among early Christians. It is 
 contradicted three times in the Acts of the Apostles. 
 ''Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree" (Acts v. 
 30), says Peter of Jesus. He states again (x. 39) 
 *• Whom they slew and hanged on a tree ; " and re- 
 peats (xiii. 29), "They took him down from the tree 
 and laid him in a sepulchre." There is no crucifix- 
 ion, as commonly understood, in these statements. 
 
 1 Taylor, Diegesis, pp. 198, 199. 
 
 2 Bonwick, Egyptian Belief, p. 217. 
 
ii3 
 
 Outside of the New Testament, there is no evi- 
 dence whatever in book, inscription, or monument, 
 that Jesus was either scourged or crucified under 
 Pontius Pilate. Josephus, Tacitus, Plinius, Philo, nor 
 any of their contemporaries, have referred to the fact 
 of this crucifixion, or express any belief thereon. In 
 the Jewish Talmud, Jesus is not referred to as the 
 crucified one, but as the "hanged one."^ Elsewhere 
 it is narrated that he was stoned to death.^ 
 
 Saint Irenaeus (a.d. 192), one of the most cele- 
 brated, most respected, and most quoted of the 
 Christian Fathers, tells us on the authority of his 
 master, Polycarp, who had it from Saint John him- 
 self, and from others, that Jesus was not crucified at 
 the time stated in the Gospels, but that he lived to 
 be nearly fifty years old. 
 
 The following is a portion of the passage : — 
 
 As the chief part of thirty years belongs to youth, 
 and every one will confess him to be such till the 
 fortieth year ; but from the fortieth he declines into 
 old age, which our Lord [Jesus] having attained, he 
 taught us the Gospel, and all the elders who, in Asia 
 assembled with John, the disciples of the Lord tes- 
 tify; and as John himself had taught them. And 
 he [John ?] remained with them till the time of 
 Trajan. And some of them saw not only John but 
 
 1 Wise, The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth, p. 100. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 106. 
 
 8 
 
114 
 
 other Apostles, and heard the same thing from them, 
 and bear the same testimony to this revelation.^ 
 
 In John viii. 56, Jesus is made to say to the Jews : 
 " Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day ; and 
 he saw it and was glad." Then said the Jews unto 
 him : " Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast 
 thou seen Abraham ? " If Jesus was then only thirty 
 or thereabouts, the Jews would naturally have said, 
 " Thou art not yet forty years of age." 
 
 There was a tradition among the early Christians 
 that Annas was high priest when Jesus was crucified. 
 This is evident from the Acts (iv. 5). Now, Annas, 
 or Annias, was not high-priest until the year 48 a. d.^ 
 Therefore, if Jesus was crucified at that time, he 
 must have been about fifty years of age. It is true 
 there was another Annas, high-priest at Jerusalem ; 
 but that was when Gratus was procurator of Judaea, 
 some twelve or fifteen years before Pontius Pilate 
 held the same office.^ 
 
 According to Dio Cassius, Plutarch, Strabo, and 
 others, there existed in the time of Herod among the 
 Roman-Syrian heathen a widespread and deep sym- 
 pathy for a "crucified King of the Jews." This was 
 the youngest son of Aristobulus, the heroic Maccabee. 
 In the year 43 b. c. we find this young man — An- 
 tigonus — in Palestine claiming the crown, his cause 
 
 1 Quoted in Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 121. 
 
 2 Josephus, Antiquities, bk. xx. ch. v. p. 2. 
 8 Ibid., bk. xvii. ch. ii. p. 3. 
 
115 
 
 having been declared just by Julius Caesar. Allied 
 with the Parthians, he maintained himself in his 
 royal position for six years against Herod and Mark 
 Antony. At last, after an heroic life and reign, he 
 fell into the hands of this Roman. '* Antony now 
 gave the kingdom to a certain Herod, and having 
 stretched Antigonus on a cross and scourged him, — 
 a thing never done before to any other king by the 
 Romans, — he put him to death." ^ 
 
 The fact that all prominent historians of those 
 days mention this extraordinary occurrence, and the 
 manner in which it was done, shows that it was con- 
 sidered one of Mark Antony's worst crimes, and that 
 the sympathy with the " Crucified King " was wide- 
 spread and profound.^ Some writers think that there 
 is a connection between this and the Gospel story ; 
 that Jesus was in a certain measure put in the place 
 of Antigonus, just as Herod was put in the place of 
 King Kansa, who sought to destroy Crishna. 
 
 In the first two centuries the professors of Chris- 
 tianity were divided into many sects ; but these might 
 all be resolved into two divisions, — one consisting 
 of Nazarines, Ebionites, and orthodox ; the other of 
 Gnostics, under which all the remaining sects ar- 
 ranged themselves. The former are supposed to 
 have believed in Jesus crucified, in the common lit- 
 eral acceptation of the term ; the latter, — believers 
 in Christ as an ^on, — though they admitted the 
 
 1 Dio Cassius, bk. xlix. p. 405. 
 
 2 The Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth, p. 106. 
 
Ii6 
 
 crucifixion, considered it to have been in some mystic 
 way, perhaps what might have been called spiritu- 
 aiiter, as it is regarded in the Revelation ; but, not- 
 withstanding the different opinions they held, they 
 all denied that the Christ did really die, in the literal 
 acceptation of the term, on the cross. Mr. King, in 
 speaking of the Gnostic Christians, says : — 
 
 Their chief doctrines had been held for centuries 
 before in many of the cities in Asia Minor. There, 
 it is probable, they first came into existence, as 
 MysfcBf upon the establishment of direct intercourse 
 with India, under the Seleucidae and Ptolemies. The 
 college of Essenes and Megabyzae at Ephesus, the 
 Ophites of Thrace, the Cretans of Crete, are all merely 
 branches of one antique and common religion, and 
 that originally Asiatic* 
 
 Several of the texts of the Gospel histories were 
 quoted with great plausibility by the Gnostics in 
 support of their doctrines. The story of Jesus 
 passing through the midst of the Jews when they 
 were about to cast him headlong from the brow of a 
 hill (Luke iv. 29, 30), and when they were going to 
 stone him (John iii. 59 ; x. 31, 39), were not easily 
 refuted. 
 
 There are those who consider Jesus Christ, not as 
 a person, but as a spiritual principle, personified by 
 the Essenes, as the ancients personified the sun, 
 and gave to it an experience similar to their own. 
 
 1 King, Gnostics, p. i. 
 
117 
 
 According to Josephus and Philo,^ the Essene doc- 
 trines were kept secret with the greatest possible 
 care. The members of the brotherhood were ad- 
 mitted into the assembly only after a three years' 
 novitiate, and they were then not only sworn to 
 secrecy, but were sworn also not to commit any por- 
 tion of their doctrine to writing, except in allegory 
 and symbolism, " as they received it ; " for they 
 were instructed only by means of allegories and sym- 
 bolic representations. It was their custom to as- 
 semble and listen to interpretations of the Hebrew 
 sacred writings from the elders among them. In re- 
 gard to this practice Philo says : — 
 
 And these explanations of the Sacred Scriptures 
 are delivered by mystic expressions in allegories ; for 
 the whole of the Law appears to these men to re- 
 semble a living animal, and its express command- 
 ments seem to be the Body, and the invisible meaning 
 under and lying beneath the plain words resembles 
 the Soul, in which the rational soul begins most ex- 
 cellently to contemplate what belongs to itself, as in 
 a mirror, beholding in these very words the exceed- 
 ing beauty of the sentiments, and unfolding and ex- 
 plaining the symbols and bringing the secret meaning 
 to the light of all who are able, by the light of a 
 
 1 See Josephus, Antiquities, bk. ii. § 8 ; also Wars, bk. xviii. 
 § I. Philo on the Virtuous being also Free (Bohn's ed., vol. iii. 
 pp. 523 et seq.), also Fragments (vol. iv.), and Essay on the 
 Contemplative Life (vol. iv.). 
 
ii8 
 
 slight intimation, to perceive what is unseen by what 
 is visible. 
 
 In another place the Essenes are said " to take up 
 the Sacred Scriptures and philosophize concerning 
 them, investigating the allegories of their national 
 philosophy, since they look upon their literal ex- 
 pressions as symbols of some secret meaning of 
 nature, intended to be conveyed by those figurative " 
 expressions. 
 
 They are said also to have writings of ancient 
 men, who, having been the founders of one sect or 
 another, have left behind them many memorials of 
 the allegoric system of writing and explanation, 
 and they imitate the general fashion of their sect, so 
 that they do not occupy themselves solely in con- 
 templation, but they likewise compose psalms and 
 hymns to God in every kind of metre and melody 
 imaginable.! 
 
 In the Visions, Commands, and Similitudes of Her- 
 mas — one of the Apocryphal New Testament books 
 that was discarded by the Athanasian Council, but 
 which was previously accepted by Christians — we 
 find the Law of God spoken of as the Son of God. 
 In the eighth Similitude a mystical shepherd is in- 
 troduced as expounding a Vision in these words : — 
 
 This great tree which covers the plains and moun- 
 tains, and all of the earth, is the Law of God, pub- 
 
 1 Hitchcock, Christ the Spirit, pp. 34-37. 
 
119 
 
 lished throughout the whole world. Now, this Law 
 is the Son of God, who is preached to all the ends 
 of the earth. The people that stand under its 
 shadow are those who have heard his preaching and 
 believe, etc. 
 
 In another place (in the ninth Similitude) an 
 Angel IS represented as expounding a Vision, and 
 says : " I will show thee all those things which the 
 Spirit spake to thee under the figure of a Church. 
 For that Spirit is the Son of God." "In these 
 Visions of Hermas," says Major-General Ethan A. 
 Hitchcock, "which may possibly be a genuine Essene 
 work, the Son of God is spoken of in several ways : 
 here, we see, as the Law of God ; but manifestly not 
 the written Law, for that was not published to all 
 the ends of the earth. The Spirit of the Law — that 
 is, the Life of it — was therefore referred to ; for this 
 is ' preached ' in the consciences of all men through- 
 out the world." ^ 
 
 This would account for the fact that no hint is 
 given in the New Testament of Christ's appearance. 
 Mrs. Jameson, speaking on this subject, says : — 
 
 We search in vain for the lightest evidence of his 
 [Christ's] human individual semblance, in the writings 
 of those disciples who knew him so well. In this 
 instance the instincts of earthly affection seem to 
 have been mysteriously overruled. He whom all 
 
 1 Christ the Spirit, p. 41. New York : 1861. 
 
120 
 
 races were to call brother was not to be too closely 
 associated with the particular lineaments of any one. 
 Saint John, the beloved disciple, could lie on the 
 breast of Jesus with all the freedom of fellowship, 
 but not even he has left a word to indicate what 
 manner of man was the Divine Master after the flesh. 
 We are therefore left to imagine the expression most 
 befitting the character of him who took upon himself 
 our likeness, and looked at the woes and sins of 
 mankind through the eyes of our mortality.^ 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Geikie says, in his Life of Christ: — 
 
 No hint is given in the New Testament of Christ's 
 appearance ; and the early Church, in the absence of 
 all guiding facts, had to fall back on imagination. 
 In the first years the Christian Church fancied its 
 Lord's visage and form marred more than those of 
 other men ; and that he must have had no attrac- 
 tions of personal beauty. Justin Martyr (a. D. 150- 
 160) speaks of him as without beauty or attractive- 
 ness, and of mean appearance. Clement of Alex- 
 dria (a. d. 200) describes him as of an uninviting 
 appearance, and almost repulsive. Tertullian (a. d. 
 200-210) says he had not even ordinary human 
 beauty, far less heavenly. Origen (a. d. 230) went 
 so far as to say that he was "small in body and de- 
 formed, as well as low born, and that his only beauty 
 was in his soul and life." ^ 
 
 1 History of Our Lord in Art, vol. i. p. 31. 
 
 2 Geikie, Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 151. 
 
121 
 
 One of the favorite ways of depicting him finally 
 came to be under the figure of a beautiful and ador- 
 able youth, of about fifteen or eighteen years of age, 
 beardless, with a sweet expression of countenance, 
 and long and abundant hair flowing over his shoulders. 
 His brow is sometimes encircled by a diadem or 
 bandeau, like a young priest of the Pagan gods ; that 
 is, in fact, the favorite figure. On sculptured sar- 
 cophagi, in fresco paintings and mosaics, Christ is 
 thus represented as a graceful youth, just as Apollo 
 was figured by the Pagans, and as angels are 
 represented by Christians.^ 
 
 The following letter, addressed to the senate of 
 Rome, is said to have been written by Publius Len- 
 tulus, Roman Procurator of Judaea in the reign of 
 Tiberius Caesar. 
 
 There has appeared in these days a man of ex- 
 traordinary virtue, named Jesus Christ, who is yet 
 living among us, and by the people, generally, ac- 
 cepted of as a prophet, but by some he is called the 
 Son of God. He raises the dead and cures all man- 
 ner of diseases. A man tall and comely of stature, 
 with a very reverend countenance, such as the be- 
 holders cannot but love and fear ; his hair of the 
 color of a chestnut full ripe, and plain down to his 
 ears ; but from thence downward more orient of 
 color, waving about his shoulders. In the midst of 
 his head goeth a seam, or partition of his hair, after 
 
 1 J. P. Lundy, Monumental Christianity, p. 231. 
 
122 
 
 the manner of the Nazarites ; his forehead very plain 
 and smooth, his face without spot or wrinkle, beauti- 
 ful with a comely red, his nose and mouth so formed 
 that nothing can be found fault with ; his beard 
 somewhat thick, agreeable to the hair of his head, 
 not of any great length, but forked in the midst ; of 
 an inoffensive look ; his eyes blue, clear, and quick. 
 In reproving he is severe ; in admonishing courteous 
 and friendly; pleasant in speech, but mixed with 
 gravity. It cannot be remembered that any have 
 seen him laugh, but many have observed him to 
 weep. In proportion of body well shaped, and 
 a man for singular beauty exceeding the rest of 
 mankind.-^ 
 
 It will be observed that the reddish, waving, abun- 
 dant hair resembles the sun-gods, nearly all of them 
 being represented with an abundance of long, wav- 
 ing red or yellow hair, denoting the rays of the 
 sun. 
 
 The Imperial Russian Collection boasts of a head 
 of Christ which is said to be very ancient. It is a 
 fine intaglio on emerald. Mr. King says of it : " It 
 is really a head of Serapis, seen in front and crowned 
 with Persia boughs, easily mistaken for thorns, though 
 the bushel on the head leaves no doubt as to the real 
 personage." ^ 
 
 " There can be no doubt," says Mr. King, " that 
 
 1 The Vernon Gallery of British Art, No. xxxviii. 
 
 2 King's Gnostics, p. 137. 
 
123 
 
 the head of Serapis,^ marked as the face is by a 
 grave and pensive majesty, supplied the first idea for 
 the conventional portraits of the Saviour." ^ 
 
 When the temple of Serapis, at Alexandria, Egypt, 
 was demolished by one of the Christian Emperors, 
 there was found underneath the foundation a stone 
 on which was engraven hieroglyphics in the form of 
 a cross. They were said, by some of the Greeks who 
 had been converted to Christianity, to signify " the 
 Life to come." ^ 
 
 Clement of Alexandria assures us in his Siromatis 
 that all those who entered into the temple of Serapis 
 w'ere obliged to wear on their persons, in a conspic- 
 uous situation, the name of I-ha-ho or I-ha-hou^ which 
 signifies the God Eternal, The learned Abbe Bazin 
 tells us that the name esteemed the most sacred by 
 the Egyptians was that which the Hebrews adopted, 
 
 Y-HA-HO.'* 
 
 It is said that when the vain Thulis appealed to 
 Serapis, the god replied : " First God, afterward the 
 Word, and with them the Holy Spirit" ^ 
 
 Rufinus tells us that the Egyptians are said to 
 have the sign of the Lord's cross among those let- 
 ters which are called sacerdotal, — the interpretation 
 
 1 A representation of Serapis may be seen in Murray's 
 Manual of Mythology. 
 
 2 Gnostics, p. 68. 
 
 3 Socrat. Hist. Eccl., v. ch. 17, also Sozomen, Hist. Eccl., vii. 
 ch. 14. 
 
 * Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 17. 
 ^ Ibid., voL.ii. p. 14. 
 
124 
 
 being, "the Life to come."^ They certainly adored 
 the cross with profound veneration. This sacred 
 symbol is to be found on many of their ancient 
 monuments, some of which may be seen at the 
 British Museum. In the London University a cross 
 upon a Calvary is to be seen upon the breast of 
 one of the Egyptian mummies. Many of the Egyp- 
 tian images hold a cross in their hand. There is 
 one now extant of the Egyptian Saviour, Horus, 
 holding a cross in his hand, and he is represented 
 as an infant on his mother's knee, with a cross on 
 the back of the seat they occupy.^ 
 
 The commonest of all the Egyptian crosses, tKe 
 crux ansata^ was adopted by the Christians. When 
 the Saviour Osiris is represented holding out the 
 crux ansata to a mortal, it signifies that the person 
 to whom he presents it has put off mortality and 
 entered on the life to come.^ 
 
 The Greek cross and the cross of Saint Anthony 
 are also found on Egyptian monuments. A figure of 
 a Shari from Sir Gardner Wilkinson's book (fig. 14) 
 has a necklace round his throat, from which depends 
 a pectoral cross. Another Egyptian cross which is 
 apparently intended for a Latin cross rising out of 
 a heart, like the mediaeval emblem of cor in cruce^ 
 crux in corde, is the hieroglyph of goodness.* 
 
 1 Hist. Eccl., ii. ch. 29. 
 
 2 R. P. Knight, Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 58. 
 
 * Curious Myths, p. 385. 
 
 * H. M. Westrop, in Gentleman's Magazine, N. s. vol. xv. 
 p. 80. 
 
125 
 
 The' ancient Egyptians were in the habit of putting 
 a cross on their sacred cakes, just as Christians of 
 the present day on Good Friday. The plan of the 
 chamber of some Egyptian sepulchres has the form 
 of a cross. The cross was worn by Egyptian women 
 as an ornament as it is worn to-day by Christians. 
 
 The ensigns and standards carried by the Persians 
 during their wars with Alexander the Great (b. c. 
 335) ^'^^^ made in the form of a cross.-^ 
 
 Sir Robert Ker Porter, in his very valuable work 
 entitled Travels in Georgia^ Persia^ Armenia^ and 
 Ancient Babylonia, gives a representation of a bas- 
 relief of very ancient antiquity, which he found at 
 Nashi-Roustam, or the Mountain of Sepulchres. It 
 represents a combat between two horsemen — Ba- 
 haram-Gour, one of the old Persian kings, and a 
 Tartar prince. Baharam-Gour is in the act of 
 charging his opponent with a spear, and behind him, 
 scarcely visible, appears an almost effaced form 
 which must have been his standard-bearer, as the 
 ensign is very plainly to be seen. This ensign is a 
 cross. There is another representation of the same 
 subject to be seen in a bas-relief, which shows the 
 standard-bearer and his cross-ensign very plainly. 
 This bas-relief belongs to a period when the Arsa- 
 cedian kings governed Persia, which was within a 
 century after the time of Alexander, and consequently 
 more than two centuries b. c.^ 
 
 1 Bonwick, Egyptian Belief, p. 217. 2 Vol. i. p. 545, pi. xxi. 
 3 P. 529, pi. xvi. 
 
126 
 
 Sir Robert also found at this place sculptures cut 
 in the solid rock which are in the form of crosses. 
 These belong to the early race of Persian monarchs, 
 whose dynasty terminated under the sword of Alex- 
 ander the Great.^ At the foot of Mount Nakshi- 
 Rajab he also found bas-reliefs, among which were 
 two figures carrying a cross-standard. It is coeval 
 with the sculptures found at Nashi-Roustam, and 
 therefore belongs to a period before Alexander's 
 invasion. 
 
 The ancient Babylonians honored the cross as a 
 religious symbol. It is found on their oldest monu- 
 ments. Anu, a deity who stood at the head of 
 Babylonian mythology, had a cross for his sign or 
 symbol. It is also the symbol of the Babylonian 
 god Bal.^ A cross hangs on the breast of Tiglath 
 Pileser, in the colossal tablet from Nimrood, now in 
 the British Museum. Another king from the ruins 
 of Nineveh wears a Maltese cross on his bosom ; 
 and another from the hall of Nisroch carries an 
 emblematic necklace to which a Maltese cross is 
 attached.^ The crux ansata was also a sacred sym- 
 bol among the Babylonians. It occurs repeatedly on 
 their cylinders, bricks, and gems. 
 
 The cross has been honored in India from time 
 immemorial, and was a symbol of mysterious sig- 
 nificance in Brahminical iconography. It was the 
 
 1 PI. xvii. 
 
 '^ Egyptian Belief, p. 218. 
 
 2 Bonomi, Nineveh and its Palaces, pp. 303, 333, 404. 
 
symbol of the Hindoo god Agni, the Light of the 
 World} 
 
 It is placed by Miiller in his Glauben, Wissen, 
 und Kunst der alien Hindus, in the hands of Siva, 
 Brahma, Vishnu, Yavashtri, and Jarma. Fra Paolino 
 tells us it was used by the ancient kings of India as 
 a sceptre.^ 
 
 Two of the principal pagodas of India — Benares 
 and Mathura — were erected in the forms of vast 
 crosses.^ 
 
 In the Jamalgiri remains and other sculptures 
 brought to light by General Cunningham, near Pesh- 
 awur, it is stated that a complete set of illustmtions 
 of the New Testament might be made, such as Mary 
 laying her child in a manger, near which stands a 
 mare with its foal ; the young Christ disputing with 
 the doctors in the Temple ; the Saviour healing the 
 man with a withered limb ; the woman taken in 
 adultery kneeling before Christ, whilst in the back- 
 ground men hold up stones menacingly. Mr. Fer- 
 gusson fixes the date of the Jamalgiri monastery as 
 somewhere between the fifth and seventh centuries, 
 
 A.D.* 
 
 In the cave of Elephanta, over the head of the 
 figure represented as destroying the infants, may be 
 seen the mitre, the crosier, and the cross.'^ 
 
 1 Monumental Christianity, p, 14. 
 
 2 Curious Myths, p. 374. London: 1872. 
 
 3 Maurice, Indian Antiquities, vol. 2, p. 359. 
 * Buddha and early Buddhism, p. x. 
 
 ^ Baring-Gould, Curious Myths, p. 374. London: 1872. 
 
I2S 
 
 Mr. Doane, in his Bible Myths (p. i86, fig. 7), 
 gives a representation of a pre-Christian crucifix of 
 Asiatic origin, which is evidently intended to rep- 
 resent the Hindoo crucified Saviour, Crishna, the 
 "Pardoner of Sins" and "Liberator from the Serpent 
 of Death." ^ Plate number viii., same page, is with- 
 out doubt Crishna crucified. Instead of the crown 
 of thorns usually put on the head of the Christian 
 Saviour it has the turreted coronet of the Ephesian 
 Diana. 
 
 In the earlier copies of Moor's Hindu Pantheon 
 are to be seen representations of Crishna (as Wit- 
 toba) with marks of holes in both feet, and in others 
 of holes in the hands. Figure vi. has a round hole 
 in the side. To the collar hangs the emblem of a 
 heart. 
 
 The monk Georgius, in his Tibetinum Alphabetum 
 (p. 203), has given plates of a crucified god wor- 
 shipped at Nepal. These crucifixes were to be seen 
 at the corners of roads and on eminences. He calls 
 it the god Indra. 
 
 No sooner is Indra born than he speaks to his 
 mother. Like Apollo and all other sun-gods, he has 
 golden locks, and, like them, he is possessed of an in- 
 scrutable wisdom. He is also born of a virgin, — the 
 Dawn. Crishna and Indra are one.^ 
 
 ^ Child, Progress of Religious Ideas, vol. i. p. 72. Lon- 
 don: 187 1. 
 
 2 Cox, Aryan Mythology, vol. i. pp. 88, 304; vol. ii. p. 131. 
 London : 1870. 
 
129 
 
 The sun-gods were generally said to speak to their 
 mothers as soon as they were born. This myth was 
 woven into the. life of Buddha, and the Apocryphal 
 New Testament makes the same statement in regard 
 to Christ.^ 
 
 P. Andrada la Crozius, one of the first Europeans 
 who went to Nepal and Thibet, in speaking of the 
 god whom they worshipped there, Indra, tells us that 
 they said he spilt his blood for the salvation of the 
 human race, and that he was pierced through the 
 body with nails. He further says that, although they 
 do not say he suffered the penalty of the cross, yet 
 they find, nevertheless, figures of it in their books.^ 
 
 Monsieur Guigniaut, in his Religion de VAntiquite, 
 tells us that the death of Crishna is very differently 
 related. One tradition makes him perish on a tree, 
 to which he was nailed by the stroke of an arrow.^ 
 
 Dr. Inman says : " Crishna, whose history so 
 closely resembles our Lord's, was also like him in 
 his being crucified." ^ 
 
 On the promontory of India, in the South at Tan- 
 jore, and in the North at Oude or Ayoudia, was 
 found the worship of the crucified god Ballaji or 
 Wittoba. This god, who was beheved to have been 
 an incarnation of Vishnu, was represented with holes 
 in his hands and side.^ 
 
 1 See the Gospel of the Infancy of Christ. 
 
 2 Quoted in Higgins's Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. Ii8. 
 8 Ibid., vol. i. p. 144. 
 
 * Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 411. London : 1872. 
 s Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 147. 
 9 
 
130 
 
 The cross has been an object of profound venera- 
 tion among the Buddhists from the earliest times. 
 One is the sacred swastica. It is seen on Buddhist 
 zodiacs, and is one of the symbols in the Asoka in- 
 scriptions.^ It is the sectarian mark of the Jains, and 
 the distinctive badge of the sect of Xaca Japonieus. 
 The Vaishnaves of India have also the same sacred 
 sign.^ According to Arthur Lillie, the only Christian 
 cross in the Catacombs is this Buddhist swastica.^ 
 
 The cross is adored by the followers of the Lama 
 of Thibet. The Buddhists, and indeed all of the 
 sects of India, marked their followers on the head 
 with the sign of the cross. This ceremony was un- 
 doubtedly practiced by almost all heathen nations. 
 The resemblance between the ancient religion of 
 Thibet and that of the Christians has been noticed 
 by many European travellers and missionaries, among 
 whom may be mentioned Pere Grebillon, Pere Grue- 
 ber, Horace de la Paon, D'Orville, and M. I'Abb^ 
 Hue. 
 
 Mr. Doane gives us a representation of the Cruci- 
 fied Dove worshipped by the ancients,* — the sun of 
 noonday crucified in the heavens, who, in the words 
 of Pindar (522 B.C.), " is seen writhing on his winged 
 wheel in the highest heaven."^ 
 
 1 King, Gnostics, p. 23. 
 
 2 Buddha and Early Buddhism, pp. 7, 9, 22. 
 2 Ibid., p. 227. 
 
 * Bible Myths, p. 485. 
 
 s The Extant Odes of Pindar, translated by Ernest Myers, 
 M.A., p. 59. London : 1874. 
 
131 
 
 Says the author of a learned work, entitled Nimrod: 
 
 We read in Pindar of the venerable bird lynx 
 bound to the wheel, and of the pretended punish- 
 ment of Ixion. But this rotation was really no 
 punishment, being, as Pindar saith, voluntary, and 
 prepared by hhnself, and for himself ; or if it was, 
 it was appointed in derision of his false preten- 
 sion, whereby he gave himself out as the crucified 
 spirit of the world. The four spokes represent 
 Saint Andrew's cross, adapted to the four limbs ex- 
 tended, and furnish perhaps the oldest profane al- 
 lusion to the crucifixion. The same cross of Saint 
 Andrew was the Taw which Ezekiel commands them 
 to mark upon the foreheads of the faithful, as ap- 
 pears from all Israelitish coins whereon that letter is 
 engraved. The same idea was familiar to Lucian, 
 who calls T the letter of crucifixion. Certainly the 
 veneration for the cross is very ancient. lynx, the 
 bird of Maustic inspiration, bound to the four-legged 
 wheel, gives the idea of Divine Love crucified. The 
 wheel denotes the world, of which she is the spirit, 
 and the cross the sacrifice made for that world. ^ 
 
 The " Divine Love," of whom Nimrod speaks, was 
 " The First-begotten Son " of the Platonists. Plato 
 (429 B. c), in his Timceus, in philosophizing about 
 the Son of God, says : " The next power to the Su- 
 preme God was decussated or figured in the shape of 
 a cross on the universe." 
 
 1 Nimrod, vol. i. p. 288 ; Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 303. 
 
132 
 
 This brings to mind the doctrine of certain Chris- 
 tian heretics (so called), who maintained that Jesus 
 Christ was crucified in the heavens. 
 
 The crucified lao (" Divine Love " personified) is 
 the crucified Adonis, orTammuz (the Jewish Adonai), 
 the Sun, who was put to death by the wild boar of 
 Aries, — one of the twelve signs in the zodiac. The 
 crucifixion of *' Divine Love " is often found among 
 the Greeks. Hera or Juno, according to the Iliad, 
 was bound with fetters and suspended in space, be- 
 tween heaven and earth. Ixion, Prometheus, and 
 Apollo of Miletus were all crucified.^ 
 
 The story of the crucifixion of Prometheus was al- 
 legorical j for Prometheus was only a title of the sun, 
 expressing providence or foresight, wherefore his be- 
 ing crucified in the extremities of the earth signified 
 originally no more than the restriction of the power 
 of the sun during the winter months.^ 
 
 A great number of the solar heroes, or sun-gods, 
 are forced to endure being bound, which indicates 
 the tied-up power of the sun in winter.^ 
 
 Achilleus and Meleagros represent alike the short- 
 lived sun, whose course is one of toil for others, end- 
 ing in an early death, after a series of wonderful 
 victories, alternating with periods of darkness and 
 
 1 See Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography 
 and Mythology, under art. Hera. 
 
 2 Knight, Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 88. New York : 
 1876. 
 
 3 Goloziher, Hebrew Mythology, p. 406. London : 1877. 
 
133 
 
 gloom.^ In the tales of the Trojan war it is re- 
 lated of Achilleus that he expires at the Skaian, or 
 western gates of evening. He is slain by Paris, who 
 here appears as the Pani, or dark power, who blots 
 out the sun from the heaven. 
 
 We have the Crucified Rose, which is illustrated 
 in the jewel of the Rosicrucians. This jewel is 
 formed of a transparent red stone, with a red cross 
 on one side, and a red rose on the other ; thus it is a 
 crucified rose. " The Rossi, or Rosi-crucians, idea 
 concerning this emblematic red cross," says Har- 
 grave Jennings, in his History of the Rosicrucians^ 
 "probably came from the fable of Adonis being 
 changed into a red rose by Venus." ^ 
 
 The emblem of the Templars is a red rose on a 
 cross. When it can be done, it is surrounded with 
 a glory and placed on a calvary. This is the Nau- 
 rutz, Natsir, or Rose of Isuren, of Tamul, or Sharon, 
 or the Water Rose, the Lily Padma, Pena, Lotus, 
 crucified in the heavens for the salvation of man.^ 
 
 The principal silver coin among the Romans, called 
 the denarius, had on one side a personification of 
 Rome as a warrior with a helmet, and on the reverse 
 a chariot drawn by four horses. The driver had a 
 cross-standard in one hand. This is a representation 
 of a denarius of the earliest kind, which was first 
 
 1 G. W. Cox, Tales of Ancient Greece, p. xxxii. London*. 
 1870. 
 
 2 The Rosicrucians, p. 260. London : 1879. 
 8 Ibid. 
 
134 
 
 coined 296 b. c.-^ The cross was used on the roll of 
 the Roman soldiery as the sign of life. The labarum 
 of Constantine was the X and P in combination, 
 which was the monogram of the Egyptian Saviour 
 Osiris, of Jupiter Ammon, and afterwards of Christ.^ 
 The monogram of Mercury was a cross. ^ The 
 monogram of the Egyptian Taut was formed by 
 three crosses.* The monogram of Saturn was a 
 cross and a ram's horn ; it was also a monogram of 
 Jupiter.^ The monogram of Venus was a cross and 
 a circle.® The Phoenician Astarte, the Babylonian 
 Bal, Freya, Holder, and Aphrodite, all had the same 
 monogram.' 
 
 An oval seal of white chalcedony engraved in the 
 Memoires de V Academic royale des Inscriptions et 
 Belles Lettres (vol. xvi.), has as subject a standing 
 figure between two stars, beneath which are handled 
 crosses. About the head of the deity is the triangle, 
 or symbol of the Trinity. This seal is supposed to 
 be Phoenician. The Phoenicians also regarded the 
 cross as a sacred sign. The goddess Astarte, — the 
 moon, — the presiding divinity over the watery ele- 
 ment, is represented on the coins of Byblos holding 
 
 1 Chambers' Encyclopaedia, art. Denarius. 
 
 2 Celtic Druids, p. 127 (London : 1827), and Bonwick's 
 Egyptian Belief, p. 218. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. loi. * Ibid. p. loi. 
 ^ Ibid. p. 127. 6 Ibid. p. 127. 
 
 "^ Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 218 ; also Cox, Aryan My- 
 thology, vol. ii. p. 115. 
 
135 
 
 a long staff surmounted by a cross, and resting her 
 foot on the prow of a galley. The cyclopean temple 
 at Gozzo, the island adjacent to Malta, has been 
 supposed to be a shrine of the Phoenicians to 
 Mylitta or Astarte. It is of cruciform shape. A 
 superb medal of Cilicia, bearing a Phoenician legend, 
 and struck under the Persian domination, has on one 
 side a figure of this goddess with a crux ansata by 
 her side, the lower member split. 
 
 Another form of the cross is repeated frequently 
 and prominently on coins of Asia Minor. It occurs 
 as the reverse of a silver coin, supposed to be of 
 Cyprus, on several Cilician coins; it is placed be- 
 neath the throne of Baal of Tarsus, on a Phoenician 
 coin of that town, bearing the legend, translated, 
 " Baal Tharz." A medal with partially obliterated 
 characters has the cross occupying the entire field 
 of the reverse side ; several, with inscriptions in un- 
 known characters, have a ram on one side, and the 
 cross and ring on the other ; another has the sacred 
 bull, accompanied by this symbol ; others have a 
 lion's head on obverse, and the cross and circle on 
 the reverse. 
 
 A beautiful Cicilian medal of Camarina bears a 
 swan and altar, and beneath the altar is one of these 
 crosses with a ring attached to it.^ 
 
 As in Phoenician iconography this cross generally 
 
 1 These medals are engraved to accompany the articles of 
 M. Raoul-Rochette on the Croix ansee, in the " Memoires de 
 I'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres," torn. xvi. 
 
136 
 
 accompanies the deity, in the same manner as the 
 handled cross is associated with the Persepolitan, 
 Babylonish, and Egyptian gods, it is supposed that it 
 had the same signification of " Life Eternal." It is 
 also thought that it symbolized regeneration through 
 water. On Babylonish cylinders it is generally em- 
 ployed in conjunction with the hawk or eagle, either 
 seated on it or flying above it. This eagle is Nis- 
 roch, whose eyes are always flowing with tears for 
 the death of Tammuz. In Greek iconography Zeus 
 
 — the heaven — is accompanied by the eagle to 
 symbolize the cloud. On several Phoenician or un- 
 certain coins of Asia Minor the eagle and the cross 
 go together. Therefore it is thought that the cross 
 may symbolize life restored by rain.^ 
 
 An inscription in Thessaly is accompanied by a 
 calvary cross, and Greek crosses of equal arms adorn 
 the tomb of Midas. Crosses of dififerent shapes are 
 common on ancient cinerary urns in Italy. These 
 forms occur under a bed of volcanic tufa on the 
 Albion Mount, and are of remote antiquity. 
 
 But long before the Romans, long before the 
 Etruscans, there lived in the plains of Northern Italy 
 a people to whom the cross was a religious symbol, 
 the sign beneath which they laid their dead to rest, 
 
 — a people of whom history tells nothing, knowing 
 not their name, but of whom antiquarian research 
 
 ^ See Baring-Gould's Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 
 p. 363. London: 1872. 
 
137 
 
 has learned this, that they lived in ignorance of the 
 arts of civilization, that they dwelt in villages built on 
 platforms over lakes, and that they trusted in the 
 cross to guard, and may be to revive, their loved 
 ones whom they committed to the dust.^ 
 
 The ancient cemeteries of Villanova, near Bologna, 
 and Golaseca, on the plateau of Somma, at the ex- 
 tremity of Lake Maggiore, show conclusively that 
 above a thousand years before Christ the cross was 
 already a religious emblem of frequent employment.^ 
 
 The most ancient coins of the Gauls were circular, 
 with a cross in the middle, like little wheels, as it 
 were, with four large perforations. That these 
 rouelles were not designed to represent wheels is ap- 
 parent from there being only four spokes, placed at 
 right angles. Moreover, when the coins of the Greek 
 type took their place the cross was continued as the 
 ornamentation of the coin.^ 
 
 The reverse of the coins of the Volcse Tectosages, 
 who inhabited the greater portion of Languedoc, was 
 impressed with crosses, their angles filled with pel- 
 lets, so like those on the silver coins of the Edwards 
 that, were it not for the quality of the metal, one 
 would take these Gaulish coins to be the production 
 of the Middle Ages. The Leuci, who inhabited the 
 country round the modern Toul, had similar coins. 
 
 1 Curious Myths, p. 364. 
 
 2 De Mortillet, Le Signe de la Croix avant le Christianisme. 
 Paris: 1866. 
 
 3 Curious Myths, p. 348. 
 
138 
 
 Near Paris, at Choisy-le-Roy, was discovered a Gaul- 
 ish coin representing a head, in barbarous imitation 
 of that on a Greek medal, and the reverse occupied 
 by a serpent coiled round the circumference, enclos- 
 ing two birds. Between these birds is a cross, with 
 pellets at the end of each limb, and a pellet in each 
 angle.^ 
 
 A similar coin has been found in numbers near 
 Arthenay, in Loiret, as well as others of analogous 
 type. Other Gaulish coins bear the cross on both 
 obverse and reverse. About two hundred pieces of 
 this description were found in 1835 in the village of 
 Cremiat-sur-Yen, near Quimper, in a brown earthen 
 urn, with ashes and charcoal, in a rude kistvaen of 
 stone blocks, — proving that the cross was used on 
 the coins in Armorica at the time when incineration 
 was practised.^ 
 
 Just as the Saint George's cross appears on the 
 Gaulish coins, so does the cross cramponn^e, or 
 Thor's hammer, appear on the Scandinavian moneys. 
 
 In ploughing a field near Bornholm, in Fyen, in 
 1835, ^ discovery was made of several gold coins 
 and ornaments belonging to ancient Danish civili- 
 zation. They were impressed with a four-footed 
 horned beast, girthed and mounted by a monstrous 
 human head, intended in barbaric fashion to rep- 
 resent the rider. In front of the head was the sign 
 of Thor's hammer. Some of these specimens ex- 
 hibited likewise the name of Thor in Runes. 
 
 1 Curious Myths, p. 349. 2 ibid., p. 350. 
 
139 
 
 King Olaf, Longfellow tells us, when keeping 
 Christmas at Drontheim : — 
 
 O'er his drinking-horn, the sign 
 He made of the Cross Divine, 
 
 As he drank and muttered his prayers ; 
 But the Berserks evermore 
 Made the sign of the Hammer of Thor, 
 Over theirs. 
 
 They both made the same symbol. This we are 
 told by Snorro Sturleson, in the Heimskringla,^ 
 when he describes the sacrifice at Lade, at which 
 King Hakon, Athelstan's foster-son, was present. 
 
 Now when the first full goblet was filled, Earl 
 Sigurd spoke some words over it, and blessed it in 
 Odin's name, and drank to the king out of the horn ; 
 and the king then took it and made the sign of the 
 cross over it. Then said Kaare of Greyting, " What 
 does the king mean by doing so? will he not sac- 
 rifice ? '^ But Earl Sigurd replied, " The king is doing 
 what all of you do who trust in your power and 
 strength ; for he is blessing the full goblet in the 
 name of Thor, by making the sign of his hammer 
 over it before he drinks it." 
 
 It was with this hammer that Thor crushed the 
 head of the great Mitgard serpent ; that he destroyed 
 the giants ; that he restored the dead goats to life 
 which drew his car ; that he consecrated the pyre of 
 Baldur. The cross of Thor is still used in Iceland 
 1 Heimskringla, Saga iv., c. i8 1 a. 
 
140 
 
 as a magical sign in connection with storms of wind 
 and rain. The German peasantry use the sign of 
 the cross to dispel a thunder-storm, the cross being 
 used because it resembles Thor's hammer, Thor 
 being the Thunderer. For the same reason bells 
 were often marked with the "fylfot,'^ or cross of 
 Thor, especially where the Norse settled, as in 
 Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Thor's cross is on the 
 bells of Appleby, Scothern, Waddingham, Bishop's 
 Norton, and Barkwith, also those of Hathersage in 
 Derbyshire, Mexborough in Yorkshire, and many 
 more. 
 
 The fylfot is the sacred swastica of the Buddhists, 
 and the symbol of Buddha. The early Aryan na- 
 tions called the cross arani. Its two arms were 
 named pramatha and swastica. They were merely 
 two pieces of wood with handles, and by rubbing 
 together they kindled the sacred fire agni. 
 
 From pramatha comes the Grecian myth of Prome- 
 theus, who stole the fire of heaven from Zeus in a 
 hollow staff and kindled the divine spark of life in 
 man formed of clay. Hence in worshipping the 
 cross, the Aryans were but worshipping the element 
 fire.i 
 
 On the reverse of a coin found at Ugain is a cross 
 of equal arms, with a circle at the extremity of each, 
 and the fylfot in each circle. 
 
 The same peculiar figure occurs on coins of Syra- 
 
 1 W. B. Wilson, The Cross Ancient and Modern, p. ii. 
 New York : 1888. 
 
141 
 
 cuse, Corinth, and Chalcedon, and is frequently em- 
 ployed on Etruscan cinerary urns. It appears on 
 the dress of a fossor, as a sort of badge of his office, 
 on one of the paintings in the Roman Catacombs.'^ 
 The cross was found among the ruins of Pompeii.^ 
 In the depths of the forests of Central America 
 is a ruined city, Palenque, founded, according to 
 tradition, by Votan, in the ninth century before the 
 Christian era. The principal building in Palenque 
 is the palace. The eastern fagade has fourteen doors 
 opening on a terrace, with bas-reliefs between them. 
 A noble tower rises above the courtyard in the 
 centre. In this building are several small temples 
 or chapels, with altars standing. At the back of one 
 of these altars is a slab of gypsum, on which are 
 sculptured two figures standing one on each side of 
 a cross, to which one is extending his hands with an 
 offering of a baby or a monkey. The cross is sur- 
 rounded with rich feather-work and ornamental chains. 
 The style of sculpture and the accompanying 
 hieroglyphic inscriptions leave no room for doubting 
 it to be a heathen representation. Above the cross 
 is a bird of peculiar character, perched like the eagle 
 of Nisroch on a cross upon a Babylonish cylinder. 
 The same cross is represented on old pre-Mexican 
 MSS., as in the Dresden Codex, and that in the pos- 
 session of Herr Fejervary, at the end of which is a 
 colossal cross, in the midst of which is represented 
 
 1 Curious Myths, p. 354. 
 
 2 Pentateuch Examined, vol. vi. p. 115. 
 
142 
 
 a bleeding deity, and figures standing round a Tau 
 cross, upon which is perched the sacred bird.^ 
 
 A very fine and highly polished cross which was 
 taken from the Incas was placed in the Roman 
 Catholic cathedral at Cusco.^ 
 
 The cross was used in the north of Mexico. It 
 occurs amongst the Mixtecas and in Queredaro. 
 Siguenza mentions an Indian cross which was found 
 in the cave of Mixteca Baja. Among the ruins on 
 the island of Zaputero in Lake Nicaragua were 
 also found old crosses reverenced by the Indians. 
 White marble crosses were found on the island of 
 St. Ulloa, on its discovery. In the State of Ooxaca, 
 the Spaniards found that wooden crosses were erected 
 as sacred symbols, so also in Aguatolco, and among 
 the Zapatecas. The cross was venerated as far as 
 Florida on one side, and Cibola on the other. In 
 South America the same sign was considered sym- 
 bolical and sacred. It was revered in Paraguay. 
 Among the Muyscas at Cumana the cross was re- 
 garded with devotion and was believed to be en- 
 dowed with power to drive away evil spirits ; 
 consequently new-born children were placed under 
 the sign.3 
 
 The cross was the central object in the great 
 temple Cogames. 
 
 1 Klemm, Kulturgeschichte, v. 142, 143. 
 
 2 Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 32. 
 
 8 See list of authorities in Miiller, Geschichte der Ameri- 
 kanisben Urreligionen (Basil, 1855), pp. 371, 421, 498, 499. 
 
143 
 
 Lord Kingsborough speaks of crosses being found 
 in Mexico, Peru, and Yucatan.^ He also informs us 
 that the banner of Montezuma was a cross. The 
 historical paintings of the Codex Vaticanus repre- 
 sent him carrying a banner with a cross on it.^ 
 
 When the Spanish missionaries found that the 
 cross was no new object to the red men, they were 
 in doubt whether to ascribe the fact to the pious 
 labors of Saint Thomas, whom they thought might 
 have found his way to America, or to the subtleties 
 of Satan. 
 
 The Toltecs asserted that their national deity in- 
 troduced the sign and ritual of the cross. 
 
 Besides the cross, the Buddhist symbols of the 
 elephant and the cobra were f(5und in Mexico, also 
 the figure of Buddha. Mr. Lillie, in his Buddha and 
 Early Buddhism^ gives considerable evidence from 
 Chinese records showing that the missionaries of 
 Buddha evangelized America in the fifth century a. d., 
 and persuaded King Quetzal Coatl to abolish the 
 sacrifice of blood. 
 
 1 Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. pp. 165, 180. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 179. 
 
 8 Buddha and Early Buddhism, ch.xv. 
 
APPENDICES. 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 AN EXPLANATION OF THE FABLE, IN WHICH THE SUN IS 
 WORSHIPPED UNDER THE NAME OF CHRIST. 
 
 It is a fact that at the hour of midnight on the 25th of 
 December, in the centuries when Christianity made its 
 appearance, the celestial sign, which rose at the horizon, 
 and the ascendant of which presided at the opening of the 
 new solar revolution, was the Virgin of the constellations. 
 It is another fact, that the God Sun, born at the winter 
 solstice, is re-united with her and surrounds her with his 
 lustre at the time of our feast of the Assumption, or the 
 re-union of mother and son. And still another fact is, 
 that, when she comes out heliacally from the solar rays 
 at that moment, we celebrate her appearance in the 
 World, or her Nativity. It is but natural to suppose that 
 those who personified the Sun, and who made it pass 
 through the various ages of the human life, who imagined 
 for it a series of wonderful adventures, sung either in 
 poems or narrated in legends, did not fail to draw its horo- 
 scopes, the same as horoscopes were drawn for other chil- 
 dren at the precise moment of their birth. This was 
 especially the custom of the Chaldeans and of the Magi. 
 Afterwards this feast was celebrated under the name of 
 dies natalis, or feast of the birthday. Now, the celestial 
 Virgin, who presided at the birth of the god Day personi- 
 fied, was presumed to be his mother, and thus fulfil the 
 prophecy of the astrologer who had said, " A virgin shall 
 
148 
 
 conceive and bring forth" ; in other words, that she shall 
 give birth to the God Sun, like the Virgin of Sais. From 
 this idea are derived the pictures, which are delineated in 
 the sphere of the Magi, of which Abulmazar has given us 
 a description, and of which Kirker, Seldon, the famous 
 Pic, Roger Bacon, Albert the Great, Blaen, Stoffler, and 
 a great many others have spoken. We are extracting here 
 the passage from Abulmazar. " We see," says Abulmazar, 
 " in the first decan, or in the first ten degrees of the sign 
 of the Virgin, according to the traditions of the ancient 
 Persians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, of Hermes and of ^scu- 
 lapius, a young maiden, called in the Persian language 
 Seclenidos de Darzama, a name when translated into 
 Arabian by that of Aderenedesa, signifies a chaste, pure, 
 and immaculate virgin, of a handsome figure, agreeable 
 countenance, long hair, and modest mien. She holds in 
 her hand two ears of corn ; she sits on a throne ; she 
 nourishes and suckles a babe, which some call Jesus, and 
 the Greeks call Christ." The Persian sphere published 
 by Scaliger as a sequel of his notes on Manilius, gives 
 about the same description of the celestial Virgin ; but 
 there is no mention made of the child which she suckles. 
 It places alongside of her a man, which can only be Bootes, 
 called the foster-father of the son of the Virgin Isis, or of 
 Horus. 
 
 The Sun is neither born nor does it die; but, in the 
 relation which the days engendered by it have with the 
 nights, there is in this world a progressive gradation of in- 
 crease and decrease, which has originated some very 
 ingenious fictions amongst the ancient theologians. They 
 have assimilated this generation, this periodical increase 
 and decrease of the day, to that of man, who, after having 
 been born, grown up, and reached manhood, degenerates 
 
149 
 
 and decreases until he has finally arrived at the term of the 
 career allotted to him by Nature to travel over. The God 
 of Day, personified in the sacred allegories, had therefore 
 to submit to the whole destiny of man : he had his cradle 
 and his tomb. He was a child at the winter solstice, at 
 the moment when the days begin to grow. Under this 
 form they exposed his image in the ancient temples, in 
 order to receive the homage of his worshippers; "be- 
 cause," says Macrobius, ** the day being then the shortest, 
 this god seems to be yet a feeble child." This is the child 
 of the mysteries, he whose image was brought out from 
 the recesses of their sanctuaries by the Egyptians every 
 year on a certain day. 
 
 This is the child of which the goddess of Sais claimed 
 to be the mother, in that famous inscription, where these 
 words could be read : " The fruit which I have brought 
 forth is the Sun." This is the feeble child, born in the 
 midst of the darkest night, of which this Virgin of Sais 
 was delivered about the winter solstice, according to 
 Plutarch. 
 
 In an ancient Christian work, called the Chronicle of 
 Alexandria, occurs the following: "Watch how Egypt 
 has constructed the child birth of a virgin, and the birth 
 of her son, who was exposed in a crib to the adoration of 
 her people." (See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 143.) 
 
 The Sun being the only redeemer of the evils which 
 winter produces, and presumed in the sacerdotal fictions 
 to be born at the solstice, must remain yet three months 
 more in the inferior regions, in the regions affected by evil 
 and darkness, and there be subject to their ruler before it 
 makes the famous passage of the vernal equinox, which 
 assures its triumph over night, and which renews the face 
 of the earth. They must, therefore, make him live during 
 
ISO 
 
 all that time exposed to all the infirmities of mortal life, 
 until he has resumed the rights of divinity in his triumph. 
 (See Origin of All Religions, pp. 232, 238.) 
 
 In the national library there is an Arabian manuscript 
 containing the twelve signs, delineated and colored, in 
 which is a young child alongside of the Virgin, being 
 represented in about the same style as our Virgins, and 
 like an Egyptian Isis and her son. 
 
 " In the first decade of the Virgin rises a maid, called 
 in Arabic 'Aderenedesa' — that is, pure, immaculate virgin, 
 — graceful in person, charming in countenance, modest in 
 habit, with loosened hair, holding in her hand two ears of 
 wheat, sitting upon an embroidered throne, nursing a boy, 
 and rightly feeding him in the place called Hebraea. A 
 boy I say, named lessus by certain nations, which signifies 
 Issa, whom they also call Christ in Greek." (Kircher, 
 CEdipiis yEgypticus.') 
 
 ** The celestial Virgin was represented in the Indian 
 zodiac of Sir William Jones with ears of corn in one hand 
 and the lotus in the other. In Kircher's zodiac of Hermes 
 she has corn in both hands. In other planispheres of the 
 Egyptian priests she carries ears of corn in one hand, 
 and the infant Horus in the other. In Roman Catholic 
 countries she is generally represented with the child in one 
 hand and the lotus, or lily, in the other. In Montfaucon's 
 work (vol. ii.) she is represented as a female nursing a 
 child, with ears of corn in her hand and the legend Iao. 
 She is seated on clouds. A star is at her head. The 
 reading of the Greek letters from right to left show this to 
 be very ancient." {Bible Myths, pp. 474, 475.) 
 
 Mr. Cox tells us {Aryan Myths, vol. i., p. 228), that 
 with scarcely an exception, all the names by which the 
 Virgin goddess of the Akropolis was known, point to the 
 
151 
 
 mythology of the Dawn. In Grecian mythology Theseus 
 was said to have been born of Aithra, "the pure air"; 
 CEdipus of lokaste, " the violet light of morning." Perseus 
 was born of the Virgin Danae, and was called the " Son of 
 the bright morning." In lo, the mother of the *' sacred 
 bull," the mother also of Hercules, we see the "violet- 
 tinted morning." We read in the Vishjiu Purana that 
 "The Sun of Achyuta (God, the Imperishable) rose in 
 the dawn of Devaki, to cause the lotus petal of the uni- 
 verse (Crishna) to expand. On the day of his birth the 
 quarters of the horizon were irradiate with joy," etc. 
 
 As the hour of the Sun's birth draws near, the mother 
 becomes more beautiful, her form more brilliant, while the 
 dungeon is filled with a heavenly light, as when Zeus came 
 to Danae in a golden shower. We read in the Protovan- 
 gelion Apocrypha (ch. xiv.) that when Christ was born, on 
 a sudden there was a great light in the cave, so that their 
 eyes could not bear it. Nearly all of the Sun-gods are 
 represented as having been born in a cave or a dungeon. 
 This is the dark abode from which the wandering Sun 
 starts in the morning. At his birth a halo of serene light 
 encircles his cradle as the Sun appears at early dawn in the 
 East, in all its splendor. In the words of the Veda : — 
 
 Will the powers of darkness be conquered by the god of 
 light ? 
 
 And when the Sun rose, they wondered how, just born, 
 he was so mighty, and they said : — 
 
 Let us worship again the Child of Heaven, the Son of 
 Strength, Arusha, the Bright Light of the Sacrifice. He 
 rises as a mighty flame, he stretches out his wide arms, he 
 
152 
 
 is even like the wind. His light is powerful, and his 
 mother, the Dawn, gives him the best share, the first 
 worship among men. 
 
 In the Rig-Veda he is spoken of as ** stretching out his 
 arms " in the heavens " to bless the world, and to rescue 
 it from the terror of darkness." 
 1/ All of the Sun-gods forsake their homes and Virgin 
 
 mothers, and wander through different countries doing 
 marvellous things. Finally, at the end of their career, the 
 mother, from whom they were parted long before, is by 
 their side to cheer them in their last hours. Also the 
 tender maidens are there, the beautiful lights which flush 
 the Eastern sky as the sun sinks in the West. The Sun 
 is frequently spoken of as having been born of the dusky 
 mother, the early dawn being dark or dusky. 
 
 The Mexican Virgin goddess, Sochiquetzal — the Hold- 
 ing up of Roses — is represented by Lord Kingsborough 
 as receiving a bunch of flowers from the embassador in 
 the picture of the annunciation. This brings to mind a 
 curious tradition of the Mahometans respecting the birth 
 of Christ. They say that he was the last of the prophets 
 who was sent by God to prepare the way for Mahomet, 
 and that he was born of the Virgin by the smelling of a 
 rose. {Antiquities of Mexico, vol. vi., pp. 175, 176.) 
 
APPENDIX B. 
 
 THE LEGENDARY LIFE OF BUDDHA AND ITS RELATION TO 
 THE INDIAN ZODL\C. 
 
 That the Buddhist zodiac plays a very prominent part in 
 the legendary life of Buddha is very evident. Buddha was 
 born on Christmas day, the new birth of the sun. The 
 zodiacal sign for December is an elephant issuing from a 
 Makara or Leviathan. Leviathan is one of the symbols of 
 the first person of the triad. The elephant (Marttanda of 
 the Rig- Veda) is the symbol of his son, the solar God-man ; 
 therefore Buddha comes to earth in the form of an ele- 
 phant. We are told that in spring, when appears the con- 
 stellation Visakha (April-May), the Bodhisatwa, under 
 the appearance of a young white elephant of six defences, 
 with a head the color of cochineal, with tusks shining like 
 gold, perfect in his organs and limbs, entered the right 
 side of his mother Maha-Maya ; and she, by means of a 
 dream, was conscious of the fact. The night on which the 
 Bodhisatwa entered his mother's side, on that same night a 
 huge white lotus, springing from the waters and parting 
 the earth for sixty-eight millions of yoganas [a yogana is 
 seven miles], rose up into the middle of the world of 
 Brahma. This lotus, only the guide of men [Bodhisatwa] 
 and Brahma are able to receive. All that there is of life 
 and creative essence in the three thousand great thou- 
 sand worlds [the earth] is assembled in the dewdrops of 
 this mighty lotus. 
 
Very early in Buddha's career the Rishi or Brahmin 
 Asiti (the constellation Aquarius, the Waterman) pays him 
 a visit, and immediately upon his presentation, begins to 
 weep — weeps because he is old and stricken in years, 
 and consequently will not live to see all the marvels the 
 infant is to perform. Nanda and Upananda (the constel- 
 lation Pisces — the two crossed fish or serpents of Bud- 
 dhism, the sign Swastica), the two heavenly serpents, sym- 
 bols of the father and mother of the universe, manifest them- 
 selves also at an early period. It is to be observed that 
 Maya, the Virgin of the sky, at the moment of Buddha's 
 birth, midnight, December 25, was just rising above the 
 horizon, it being the beginning of the new solar revolution. 
 The celestial mother dies in seven days in all the Indian 
 epics, and goes up to heaven, simply because the sun had 
 entered Aquarius, and Virgo is rising up in the heavens. 
 Two thousand years before Christ the sun passed the equi- 
 nox under Taurus, but at the time of Buddha's birth it 
 passed it under Aries. Hence the solar horse with the 
 two serpents upon his head (the Buddhist Aries) is 
 Buddha's symbol. As Makara with Aries in his mouth 
 was the celestial sign in Palestine at the date of Christ's 
 birth, Aries is his symbol also. 
 
 This explains the attempt made to kill the Sun-god by a 
 wicked king (Bimbasara in the Chinese version). When 
 the sun is in Aries, the Buddhist shaft of death (Sagit- 
 tarius) is just rising above the horizon at midnight. 
 
 Whilst in the earlier mansions of his career, the seven 
 Rishis (Ursa Major) are near the zodiacal monarch. Hence 
 the Rishis at the ploughing festival, the dispute with the 
 Rishis, etc. 
 
 When the Sun-king approaches the pair (Gemini), he has 
 to prepare for marriage. On the meridian at midnight 
 
155 
 
 there is now Sagittarius, and close to him Capricorn, the 
 zodiacal elephant. Hence the invariable archery match 
 and the attempt at the young king's life in the Indian 
 epics, by means of an elephant. In Gemini he is united 
 to his heavenly bride. 
 
 The palace in which the anointed Chakravartin is con- 
 fined is really a prison, like that of Vishnu, as M. Stenert 
 shows. I am convinced that the celebrated four signs are 
 zodiacal, for the shaft of death and the Brahmacharin are 
 plainly descernible. The old man I take to be Cancer, 
 with his emaciated form and prominent ribs, for the simile 
 is used when Buddha's rib-bones begin to show during his 
 austerities. In that case, Scorpio must represent the sick 
 man or disease. 
 
 At the commencement of summer, the Prince breaks 
 away from his prison, the solar horse Kantaka (the name 
 of Buddha's horse) flies out of the winter solstice. He 
 passes into Cancer, and commences his spiritual initiation 
 under a tree. '* His body becomes terribly emaciated. 
 His sinews and veins started out like the knotty fibres of 
 the black sandal-tree. His ribs showed through his side 
 like those of a Crab." 
 
 There is no concealment of the zodiacal nature of the 
 narrative in this passage of the Salita Vistara. It is to be 
 noticed that when the sun is in the mansion of Cancer, 
 Sivastica (the fish) is rising above the horizon at mid- 
 night. Hence, perhaps, the convenient appearance of 
 Swastica, the grass-vendor, and the kusa grass with which 
 he supplies the Prince. 
 
 Bodhisatwa marches to the Bodihi-tree with the proud 
 step of a Lion. Here again we have the zodiacal nature 
 of the narrative confessed. Sakya Sunha (the lion of the 
 Sakyas) is gaining in spiritual vigor. 
 
 '^< 
 
 S/>^ OF THF. ^ 
 
156 
 
 The fancy of the myth-monger is tremendously exercised 
 by the sign Virgo. Sujata, with the rice and milk of im- 
 mortality, is plainly Virgo. Maya, the Queen of Heaven, 
 comes also down, in an episode of the Tibetan version, to 
 comfort her son. The tree represents the mansion Virgo 
 in some Buddhist zodiacs. The baptism of the Prince 
 brings in tree, water, woman, all the intricate symbolism 
 of the subject ; and that there may be no mistake, all the 
 heavenly gods are brought in, in another episode, to 
 administer the Abhisheka, or formal rite. The Bull is in 
 the ascendant, when the sun is in Virgo. Hence, also, 
 the cows with their celestial milk. After his baptism, the 
 sun reaches the Mani, the triad symbol ; so Buddha is 
 addressed as, " O Blessed Trinity ! " The serpent 
 Munchalinda twines round him and forms a canopy over 
 his head. The tree overshadows him. He shines like 
 the Sun. 
 
 Scorpio is represented by womanly tempters, by earthly 
 appetite, the disease of the soul. And as the zodiacal 
 king admits of no rival near his throne, he vanquishes and 
 converts Papiyan (Sagittarius), also called Mara or Death. 
 Then the Chakravartin turns the Chakra of Dharma, the 
 spiritual zodiac. The white elephant has his new birth in 
 Capricorn, his whole birth according to the Buddhists, 
 and commences the spiritual life. He marches along the 
 "way" of which Buddhists make so much. His path, in 
 fact, is the path of heaven. In the old zodiac the bloody 
 sacrifice and dualism were accentuated. From above 
 2000 B.C. the sun passed the equinox under Aries, and so 
 the solar horse in India, and the ram or lamb in the West, 
 died for the world once a year. At the autumnal equinox, 
 the Osiris, the Orpheus, the White Horse, entered the 
 wintry half-year imaged by the ancients as the realms of 
 
157 
 
 Pluto. Hence the great Aswamedha (horse sacrifice) of 
 the Aryans. At the spring equinox (Easter), the sun 
 having been wept over by virgins, rose again. But as 
 Buddhism was a protest against the animal sacrifice, the 
 story of the spiritual awakening of an ascetic was substi- 
 tuted. All this disposes, I think, of M. Stenert's theory 
 that Buddha never lived. A new sun-myth had to be 
 made for Buddha, and not a Buddha for a sun-myth. 
 {Buddha and Early Buddhism, pp. 110-113.) 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 
 BUDDHA AS A REFORMER. 
 
 Five hundred and sixty years before Christ a religious 
 reformer appeared in Bengal — Buddha. 
 
 The following are some of the results due to the sojourn 
 of this man upon earth : — 
 
 1. " The most formidable priestly tyranny that the 
 world had ever seen crumbled away before his attack, and 
 the followers were paramount in India for a thousand years. 
 
 2. '* The institution of caste was assailed and over- 
 turned. 
 
 3. "Polygamy was for the first time pronounced im- 
 moral and slavery condemned. 
 
 4. "Woman, from being considered a chattel and a 
 beast of burden, was, for the first time, considered man's 
 equal, and allowed to develop her spiritual life. 
 
 5. "All bloodshed, whether with the knife of the priest 
 or the sword of the conqueror, was rigidly forbidden. 
 
 6. "Also, for the first time in the religious history of 
 mankind, the awakening of the spiritual life of the indi- 
 vidual was substituted for religion by the body corporate. 
 It is ceftain that Buddha was the first to proclaim that duty 
 was to be sought in the eternal principles of morality and 
 justice, and not in animal sacrifices and local formalities, 
 invented by the fancy of priests. 
 
 7. "The principle of religious propagandism was for 
 the first time introduced, with its two great instruments, 
 the missionary and the preacher." {Buddha and Early 
 Buddhism, pp. v., vi.) 
 
APPENDIX D. 
 
 THE PERSIAN AC(X)UNT OF THE FALL OF MAN. 
 
 According to accounts given by Von Bolen and Dr. 
 McCaul, the universe was created by Ormuzd in six periods 
 of time, in the following order : First, the heavens ; sec- 
 ond, the waters; third, the earth; fourth, the trees and 
 plants ; fifth, the animals ; sixth, man. After Ormuzd had 
 finished his work he rested. 
 
 After the creation of the world the evil being (Ahriman) 
 got upon the earth in the form of a serpent and seduced 
 the first human pair from their allegiance to God. (See 
 Aids to Faith, p. 219; also. The Pentateuch Examined, 
 vol. iv. p. 113.) 
 
 Bishop Colenso tells us of the Persian legend, that the 
 first couple lived originally in purity and innocence. Per- 
 petual happiness was promised them by the Creator if 
 they continued in their virtue. But an evil demon came 
 in the form of a serpent, sent by Ahriman, the prince of 
 devils, and gave them fruit of a wonderful tree, which im- 
 parted immortality. Evil inclinations then entered their 
 hearts, and all their moral excellence was destroyed. 
 Consequently they fell, and forfeited the eternal happiness 
 for which they were destined. They killed beasts and 
 clothed themselves in their skins. The evil demon ob- 
 tained still more perfect power pver their minds, and 
 called forth envy, hatred, discord, and rebellion, which 
 raged in the bosom of the families. {The Pentateuch 
 Examined, vol. i v. p. 115.) 
 
i6o 
 
 Ormuzd, the God of Light and of the good principle, 
 informs Zoroaster that he had given to man a place of 
 delight and abundance. " If I had not given him this 
 place of delight, no other being would have done so. Xhh 
 place was called Eiren, which at the beginning was more 
 beautiful than all the world, which my power had called 
 into existence. Nothing could equal the beauty of this 
 delightful place which I had granted. I was the first who 
 acted, and afterwards Petiare [which is Ahriman, or the 
 bad principle] : this Petiare Ahriman, full of death and 
 corruption, made in the river, the great 'Adder,' the 
 mother of winter, which congealed the water, the earth, 
 and the trees." 
 
 It is evident that the question here is only of the phys- 
 ical and periodical evil which the earth experiences 
 annually by the retreat of the Sun, which is the source of 
 life and of light for all that live on the face of the globe. 
 The cosmogony contains, therefore, only an allegorical 
 picture of the phenomena of Nature, and of the influence 
 of the celestial signs ; because the serpent or the great 
 Adder, which ushers winter into the World, is, like the 
 Balance, one of the constellations placed on the boun- 
 daries which separate the dominion of the two principles, 
 or, in other words, in the present instance, on the equinox 
 of autumn. 
 
 This is the celestial Serpent or the Star Serpent. It is 
 in the heavens that Ahriman is made to creep along under 
 the form of a serpent. The Boundesh, or the Genesis of 
 the Persians, holds the following language: "Ahriman, 
 the principle of Evil and of Darkness, he from whom all 
 the evil in this world is proceeding, penetrated into Heaven 
 under the form of a serpent, accompanied by Dews, or bad 
 Genii, whose only business is to destroy." And in another 
 
i6i 
 
 place we read : " And when the bad Genii desolated the 
 world, and when the Star Serpent made itself a road be- 
 tween Heaven and Earth, or, in other words, when it rose 
 on the horizon," etc. 
 
 Now at what epoch of the annual revolution rises the 
 celestial Serpent, united to the Sun, on the horizon with 
 that luminary ? When the Sun has arrived at the con- 
 stellation of the Balance, over which the constellation of 
 the Serpent is extended, in other words, at the seventh 
 sign, counting from the Lamb, or at the sign under which, 
 as we have seen above, the Magi had fixed the commence- 
 ment of the reign of the evil principle, and the introduc- 
 tion of Evil into the Universe. 
 
 " The cosmogony of the Jews," says Mr. Dupuis, "in- 
 troduces the Serpent with a man and a woman. In it the 
 Serpent is made to speak ; but one feels that this is pe- 
 culiar to the Oriental genius, and belongs to the character 
 of the allegory. The foundation of the theology is abso- 
 lutely the same. It is quite true there is no mention made 
 by the Jews about the Serpent having introduced winter, 
 which destroyed all the blessings of Nature ; but it is said 
 there that man felt the necessity of covering himself, and 
 that he was compelled to till the ground, an operation 
 which is performed in and which corresponds to autumn. 
 It is not said that it was at the seventh thousand or under 
 the seventh sign when the change happened in the situa- 
 tion of man ; but the action of the good principle is there 
 divided into six times, and it is on the seventh that its rest 
 or the cessation of its energy is placed, as well as the fall 
 of man in the season of fruits, and the introduction of the 
 Evil by the Serpent, the form of which was taken by the 
 bad principle, or the Devil, in order to tempt the first 
 mortals. They fix the locality of the scene in the same 
 
l62 
 
 countries which are comprised under the name of Eiren, 
 or Iran, and towards the sources of the great rtvers Eu- 
 phrates, Tigris, Phison, or of the Araxes : only instead of 
 Eiren the Hebrew copyists have put Eden, as the two 
 letters r and d in that language have a remarkable resem- 
 blance." 
 
 This cosmogonical idea has been expressed by the Magi 
 in another form. They suppose that from time without 
 end or from eternity, a limited period has been created, 
 which incessantly renews itself. They divide this period 
 into twelve thousand small parts, which they call years in 
 allegorical style. Six thousand of these fractions belong 
 to the principle of Good, and the other six to that of Evil ; 
 and that there may be no mistake, they make each one of 
 these millesimal divisions, or each one thousand, corre- 
 spond to one of the signs through which the Sun makes 
 the transit during each one of the twelve months. The 
 first one thousand, they say, corresponds to the Lamb, 
 the second to the Bull, the third to the Twins, etc. 
 Under these first six signs, or under the signs of the first 
 six months of the equinoctial year, they place the reign 
 and the beneficent action of the principle of Light, and 
 under the other six signs they place the action of the prin- 
 ciple of Evil. It is at the seventh sign, corresponding to 
 the Balance, or at the first of the signs of autumn, of the 
 season of fruits and of winter, that they place the com- 
 mencement of the reign of Darkness and of Evil. This 
 reign lasts till the return of the Sun to the sign of the Lamb, 
 which corresponds to the month of March and to Easter. 
 This is the foundation of their theological system about the 
 distribution of the opposing forces of the two principles, 
 to the action of which man is subject, during each solar 
 revolution ; this is the tree of Good and Evil near which 
 
i63 
 
 Nature Ms placed him. Let us hear their own state- 
 ments. 
 
 " Time," says the author of the Boundesh, " is composed 
 of twelve thousand years : the thousands belonging to God 
 include the Lamb, the Bull, the Twins, the Cancer, the 
 Lion, and the Ear of Corn, or the Virgin, which makes six 
 thousand years. If we substitute for the word 'year' 
 that of the fractions or the small periods of time, and for 
 the name of the signs, those of the months, we shall have 
 March, April, May, June, July, and August ; in other words, 
 the beautiful months of periodical vegetation. After these 
 thousands of God comes the Balance. Then began the 
 career of Ahriman in the world. After that comes the 
 Bowman, or the Sagittarius, and Afrasiab committed the 
 Evil," etc. 
 
 If we substitute for the names of the signs of the Bal- 
 ance, the Scorpion, the Sagittarius, the Capricorn, the 
 Waterman and the Fishes, the names of the months, Sep- 
 tember, October, November, December, January, and Feb- 
 ruary, we shall have the six times affected by the principle 
 of Evil and its effects, which are the hoary frosts, the snow, 
 the winds, and the excessive rains. It will be observed 
 that the evil Genius begins to exercise his fatal influence 
 in September, or in the season of fruits and of apples, by 
 the introduction of cold weather, by the destruction of 
 plants, etc. It is then that man becomes aware of the 
 evils which he ignored in spring and summer in the 
 beautiful cUmate of the northern hemisphere. 
 
 "According to the formal expressions used in the 
 cosmogony, it follows that the evil introduced into the 
 World is the winter. Who shall be its redeemer? The 
 God of spring or the Sun in its passage under the sign of 
 the Lamb. " 
 
164 
 
 It is then, when fecunded by the immortal and spiritual 
 (intelligent) action of the fire Ether, and by the heat of 
 the Sun of the equinoctial Lamb, that Earth becomes a 
 delightful abode for man. 
 
 But when the Star of day, reaching the Balance and the 
 Celestial Serpent, or the signs of autumn, passes into the 
 other hemisphere, then it consigns our regions, by its 
 retreat, to the hardships of winter, to the impetuous winds, 
 and to all the devastations which the destructive Genius 
 of Darkness commits in the world. There is no more 
 hope for man, except the return of the Sun to the sign of 
 Spring or to the Lamb, being the first of the signs. This 
 is the Redeemer which he expects. 
 
 The Hebrew doctors themselves, as well as the Chris- 
 tian doctors, agree that the books which we attributed to 
 Moses were written in the allegorical style, that they fre- 
 quently represent quite a different meaning than the literal 
 sense would indicate, and that it would lead to false and 
 absurd notions of the Deity if we should hold on to the 
 rind which covers sacred science. It is principally the 
 first and second chapters of Genesis that they have 
 acknowledged to contain a hidden and allegorical sense, 
 of which they say we must carefully abstain from giving 
 the interpretation to the vulgar. Maimonides, the wisest 
 of the Rabbles, says : — 
 
 We must not understand or take in a literal sense 
 what is written in the book on the creation, nor form of 
 it the same ideas which are participated by the generality 
 of mankind ; otherwise our ancient sages would not have 
 so much recommended to us to hide the real meaning of 
 it, and not to lift the allegorical veil which covers the truth 
 contained therein. When taken in its literal sense, that 
 
i65 
 
 work gives the most absurd and most extravagant ideas 
 of the Deity. Whosoever should divine its true meaning 
 ought to take great care in not divulging it. This is a 
 maxim repeated to us by all our sages, principally concern- 
 ing the understanding of the work of the six days. It 
 is possible that somebody, either through himself or by 
 means of the light obtained from others, may succeed to 
 divine its meaning ; then let him be silent, or if he speaks 
 of it, let it be done only in as veiled a manner as I do, 
 leaving the remainder to be guessed by those who can 
 hear me. 
 
 Maimonides adds that the enigmatical talent was not 
 peculiar to Moses or to the Jewish doctors, but that they 
 held it in common with all the wise men of antiquity. 
 Philo, a Jewish writer, held the same opinion of the 
 character of the sacred books of the Hebrews (see his 
 treatise on the Allegories). " It is acknowledged by all," 
 says Origenes, * ' that everything there is wrapped up under 
 the veil of enigma and parable." Augustine, in his City 
 of God, acknowledges that many people saw in the inci- 
 dent of Eve and the Serpent, as well as in the terres- 
 trial Paradise, only an allegorical fiction. (See Origin 
 of All Religious Belief, pp. 219, 226, 231.) 
 
APPENDIX E. 
 
 THE LEGEND OF THE TRAVELS OF ISIS, OR THE MOON. 
 
 The ancient Egyptians associated the Moon in the uni- 
 versal administration of the World with the Sun, and it is 
 the former which plays the part of Isis in the sacred fable 
 known as the history of Osiris and Isis. We are informed 
 by Diodorus, of Sicily, that the first inhabitants of Egypt, 
 while admiring the spectacle of the heavens and the won- 
 derful order of the world, thought to perceive in heaven 
 two principal and eternal causes, or two grand divinities ; 
 and one of them they called Osiris, or the Sun, and the 
 other Isis, or the Moon. This is confirmed by Porphyrins, 
 Chaeremon, and by other authors. The legend of Osiris 
 and Isis has come down to us in a mutilated form, and the 
 following is what Plutarch supposes it to have been : — 
 
 After his return from his travels in Egypt, Osiris was 
 invited by Typhon, his brother and rival, to a banquet. 
 He was put to death by the latter, and his body thrown 
 into the Nile. " The Sun," says Plutarch, " occupied then 
 the sign of the Scorpion, and the Moon was full ; the 
 latter wa« therefore in the sign opposite to the Scorpion ; 
 in other words, in the Bull, which lent its form to the 
 equinoctial vernal Sun, or to Osiris, because at that re- 
 mote period the Bull was the sign which corresponded to 
 the equinox of spring." As soon as Isis was informed of 
 the death of Osiris, she went in search of his body. She 
 is informed by children that the coffin containing the body 
 
16/ 
 
 of her husband had been carried by the flood down to the 
 sea, and thence to Byblos, where it stopped ; that it rested 
 quietly on a plant, which all at once had budded and put 
 forth a splendid stem. The coffin was so completely en- 
 veloped by it, that it seemed to form only one and the 
 same body. The king of the country, astonished at the 
 beauty of the tree, had cut it down and made out of it a 
 column for his palace without perceiving the coffin. Isis, 
 informed by Fame and impelled as it were by divine 
 instinct, arrives at Byblos. Bathed in tears, she sits down 
 near a fountain, where she remains until the women of the 
 queen arrive. She salutes them respectfully, and dresses 
 their hair, so as to emit with their bodies the fragrance of 
 an exquisite perfume. The queen, having been informed 
 of this, and smelling the delightful fragrance of Ambrosia, 
 desired to see the stranger. She invites Isis to come to 
 the palace and be the nurse of her son. During the night 
 Isis burns all the mortal parts of the child's body. At the 
 same time she metamorphoses herself into a swallow ; she 
 flutters around the column, and fills the air with her plain- 
 tive cries, until the queen, who had observed her, shrieks 
 with horror at the sight of her son in flames. This scream 
 breaks the charm which would have given immortality to 
 the infant. The goddess then made herself known, and 
 requested that the precious column should be given up to 
 her. She took easily from it the body of her husband, by 
 disengaging the coffin from the wood which covered it. She 
 veiled it with a light tissue, which she perfumed with 
 essences ; afterwards she restored to the king and to the 
 queen this envelope of foreign wood, which was deposited 
 in the temple of Isis at Byblos. The goddess then ap- 
 proached the coffin, bathing it with tears, and uttered such 
 a terrific scream that the youngest son of the king died of 
 
i68 
 
 terror. Isis took the oldest one with her, and embarked 
 on board of a vessel, taking with her the precious coffin ; 
 but towards morning, a somewhat strong wind having risen 
 on the river Phasdrus, it made her stop suddenly. Isis 
 retires aside, and supposing herself alone, she opens the 
 coffin, and pressing her lips on those of her husband, she 
 kisses and bedews him with her tears. The young prince, 
 whom she had brought along with her, approached her 
 stealthily from behind with as little noise as possible, and 
 spied her movements. The goddess perceived it, and 
 turning around suddenly, she gives him such a terrible 
 look that he dies of terror. She embarks again, and 
 returns to Egypt, near her son Orus (Horus), who was 
 brought up at Butos, and she deposits the corpse in a re- 
 tired place. Typhon, having gone hunting at night, dis- 
 covers the coffin, and having recognized the corpse, he 
 cuts it into fourteen pieces, which he throws around in all 
 directions. The goddess having seen it, goes to collect 
 these scattered pieces. She buries each one in the place 
 where she had found it. However, of all the parts of the 
 body of Osiris, the only one which she could not find was 
 that of generation. In place of it she substitutes the 
 phallus, which was its image, and which was consecrated 
 to the mysteries. 
 
 Some time afterwards, Osiris returned from the infernal 
 regions to the rescue of his son Orus, and placed him in a 
 condition to defend him. He mounted him, some say on 
 a horse, others on a wolf. Typhon was vanquished ; Isis 
 let him escape. Orus felt indignant on that account and 
 took from his mother her diadem ; but Mercurius gave 
 her in its place a helmet in the shape of a bull's head. 
 
 Dupuis gives comparative pictures of the legend and the 
 state of the heavens from the time when the sun has 
 
169 
 
 quitted our hemisphere, and left to the Moon, then full, the 
 reign of the long nights, until the time when it repasses 
 to our climes. (See Origin of All Religious Beliefs pp. 
 99-107.) 
 
APPENDIX F. 
 
 AN EXPLANATION OF THE HERACLEID, OR OF THE SACRED 
 POEM ON THE TWELVE MONTHS AND ON THE SUN, 
 WORSHIPPED UNDER THE NAME OF HERCULES. 
 
 The following comparison of the legend of Hercules 
 with the constellations which preside over the twelve 
 months is from Dupuis. (See Origin of All Religions, pp. 
 
 87-93-) 
 
 Whatever may have been the opinions about Hercules, 
 he was surely not a petty Grecian prince, renowned for his 
 romantic adventures. It is the mighty luminary, which 
 animates and fructifies the universe, the divinity which 
 has been honored everywhere by the erection of temples 
 and altars, and consecrated in religious song by all nations. 
 From Meroe in Ethiopia, and Thebes in Upper Egypt, to 
 the British Isles and to the snows of Scythia ; from ancient 
 Taprobane and Palibothra in the Indies to Cadiz and the 
 shores of the Atlantic Ocean ; from the forests of Germany 
 to the burning sands of Lybia, — wherever the blessings of 
 the Sun were experienced, there the worship of Hercules 
 is found established, there are sung the glorious deeds of 
 this invincible God. Many centuries before the epoch 
 which is assigned to the son of Alcmena or to the sup- 
 posed hero of Tirynthia, as the time when they made him 
 live, Egypt, Phcenicia, — which surely did not borrow their 
 gods from Greece, — had erected temples to the Sun under 
 the name of Hercules, and had carried his worship to the 
 
171 
 
 island of Thasos and to Cadiz, where they had consecrated 
 a temple to the Year and to the Month, which divided it 
 into twelve parts ; or, in other words, to the twelve labors 
 or twelve victories which conducted Hercules to immor- 
 tality. 
 
 It is under the name of Hercules Astrochyton, or of the 
 God clad in a mantle of Stars, that the poet Nonnus desig- 
 nates the Sun-god worshipped by the Tyrians. The titles 
 of the King of Fire, or Lord of the World and of the 
 Planets, of nourisher of mankind, of the God whose 
 glowing orb revolves eternally around the Earth, and who 
 while followed in his track by the Year, the daughter of 
 Time and mother of the Twelve Months, draws along in 
 regular succession the seasons, which renew and reproduce 
 themselves, are so many traits of the Sun, that we should 
 recognize them even if the poet had not given to his Her- 
 cules the name of HeHos, or the Sun. 
 
 The author of the hymns which are attributed to Or- 
 pheus describes in the most precise manner the affinity, 
 or rather the identity, of Hercules with the Sun. The 
 Phoenicians have consequently preserved the tradition that 
 Hercules was the Sun-god, and that his twelve labors 
 represented the journey of this luminary through the 
 twelve signs of the zodiac. Porphyrins, born in Phoenicia, 
 makes the same assertion. 
 
 "The Egyptians," says Plutarch, " thought that Hercules 
 had his seat in the Sun, and that he travelled with it 
 around the world." The scholiast of Hesiod tells us also 
 "that the zodiac, in which the Sun accomplishes its an- 
 nual course, is the real career which Hercules travels over 
 in the fable of the twelve labors, and that by his marriage 
 with Hebe, the goddess of youth, we must understand 
 the year which renews itself at the end of each revolution." 
 
172 
 
 It is evident that if Hercules is the Sun, as is shown by 
 the above-cited authorities, the fable of the twelve labors 
 is a solar fable which can have reference only to the twelve 
 months and to the twelve signs, of which the Sun travels 
 over one in each month. This inference shall become a 
 demonstration by the comparison which we shall make of 
 each of the labors with each one of the months, or with 
 the signs and constellations which mark the division of 
 time in the heavens during each of the months. 
 
 Amongst the different epochs at which formerly the year 
 began, that of the summer solstice was one of the most 
 remarkable. It was on the return of the Sun to this point 
 that the Greeks fixed the celebration of their Olympic 
 feasts, the establishment of which was attributed to Her- 
 cules ; this was the origin of the most ancient era of the 
 Greeks. We shall therefore fix the departure of the Sun 
 Hercules there, in its annual route. The sign of the 
 Lion, domicil of that star which furnishes it with its attri- 
 butes, having formerly occupied that point, — his first 
 labor shall be his victory over the Lion ; and it is indeed 
 the one which has been placed at the head of all the others. 
 
 But before we shall compare month for month, the 
 series of the twelve labors with that of the stars, which 
 determine and mark the annual route of the Sun, it is well 
 to observe that the ancients, in order to regulate their 
 sacred and rural calendars, employed not only the signs of 
 the zodiac, but more frequently also remarkable stars, 
 placed outside of the zodiac, and the various constella- 
 tions, which, by their rising and setting, indicate the place 
 of the Sun in each sign. The proof of this will be found 
 in the Pastes of Ovid, in Columella, and chiefly in the 
 ancient calendars which we have published as a sequel to 
 our larger work. 
 
173 
 
 CALENDAR. 
 
 FIRST MONTH. 
 
 Passage of the Sun under the 
 sign of the celestial Lion, called 
 the Lion of Nemea, fixed by the 
 setting in the morning of the 
 Ingenicuhis, or the constella- 
 tion of the celestial Hercules. 
 
 SECOND MONTH. 
 
 The Sun enters the sign of 
 the Virgin, marked by the total 
 setting of the celestial Hydra, 
 called the Lernean Hydra, the 
 head of which rises again in 
 the morning with the Cancer. 
 
 THIRD MONTH. 
 
 Passage of the Sun at the 
 commencement of Autumn to 
 the sign of the Balance, fixed 
 by the rising of the celestial 
 Centaur, the same whose hos- 
 pitality Hercules enjoyed. This 
 constellation is represented in 
 the Heavens with a leather bot- 
 tle, filled with wine, and a 
 thyrsus adorned with vine 
 leaves and grapes, image of 
 the season's product. Then 
 rises in the evening the celes- 
 tial Bear, called by others the 
 Boar and the animal of Ery- 
 manthia. 
 
 POEM. 
 
 TITLE OF THE FIRST CANTO OR 
 OF THE FIRST LABOR. 
 
 Victory of Hercules over the 
 Nemean Lion. 
 
 SECOND LABOR. 
 
 Hercules stays the Lernean 
 
 Hydra, the heads of which grew 
 
 again, whilst he is cramped in 
 
 his labor by a crawfish or Can- 
 
 THIRD LABOR. 
 A Centaur gives hospitaUty 
 to Hercules; his fight with the 
 Centaurs for a cask of wine; 
 victory of Hercules over them; 
 he slays a terrible wild Boar 
 which devastated the fields of 
 Erymanthia. 
 
174 
 
 FOURTH MONTH. 
 
 The Sun enters the sign of 
 the Scorpion, fixed by the set- 
 ting of Cassiope, a constellation 
 which was formerly represented 
 by a Hind. 
 
 FIFTH MONTH. 
 
 The Sun enters the sign of 
 the Sagittarius, consecrated to 
 the goddess Diana, whose tem- 
 ple was at Sty mph alia, in which 
 the Stymphalian birds were to 
 be seen. This passage is fixed 
 by the rising of three birds, — 
 the Vulture, the Swan, and the 
 Eagle, — pierced by the arrow 
 of Hercules. 
 
 SIXTH MONTH. 
 
 Passage of the Sun to the 
 sign of the Goat or the Capri- 
 corn, the son of Neptune, ac- 
 cording to some, and grandson 
 to the Sun, according to others. 
 This passage is marked by the 
 setting of the river of the Aqua- 
 rius, which flows under the sta- 
 ble of the Capricorn, and the 
 source of which is in the hands 
 of Aristeus, son of the river 
 Peneus. 
 
 FOURTH LABOR. 
 
 Triumph of Hercules over a 
 Hind with golden horns and 
 feet of brass, which Hercules 
 took on the seashore, where it 
 was reposing. 
 
 FIFTH LABOR. 
 
 Hercules gives chase, near 
 Stymphalia, to the Birds of the 
 Stymphalian Lake, which are 
 represented in No. 3 in the 
 medals of Perinthus. 
 
 SIXTH LABOR. 
 
 Hercules cleans the stables 
 of Augias, the son of the Sun, 
 or, according to others, the son 
 of Neptune. He makes the 
 river Peneus run through it. 
 
175 
 
 SEVENTH MONTH. 
 
 The Sun enters the sign of 
 Waterman or Aquarius, and at 
 the place in the Heavens where 
 the full Moon was found every 
 year, which served to denote 
 the epoch for the celebration 
 of the Olympic games. This 
 passage was marked by the 
 Vulture, placed in the Heav- 
 ens alongside the constellation 
 called Prometheus, at the same 
 time that the celestial Bull, 
 called the Bull of Paiiphae and 
 of Marathon, culminated in the 
 meridian, at the setting of the 
 Horse Arion or Pegasus. 
 
 EIGHTH MONTH, 
 
 Passage of the Sun to the 
 sign of the Fishes, fixed by the 
 rising in the morning of the 
 celestial Horse, the head of 
 which is bearing on Aristeus, 
 or on the Aquarius, the son of 
 Cyrene. 
 
 NINTH MONTH. 
 
 The Sun enters the sign of 
 the Ram, consecrated to Mars, 
 and which is also called the 
 Ram of the Golden Pleece, 
 This passage is marked by the 
 rising of the ship Argo, the set- 
 
 SEVENTH LABOR. 
 
 Hercules arrives at Elis. He 
 was mounted on the horse 
 Arion; he drags along wiih 
 him the Bull of Greta, beloved 
 by Pasiphae, which afterwards 
 ravaged the plains of Mara- 
 thon. He institutes the cele- 
 bration of the Olympic games, 
 where he is the first to enter 
 the lists; he kills the Vulture 
 of Prometheus. 
 
 EIGHTH LABOR. 
 
 Hercules makes the conquest 
 of the Horses of Diomedes, the 
 son of Gyrene. 
 
 NINTH LABOR. 
 
 Hercules embarks on board 
 the ship Argo, in order to make 
 the conquest of the Ram of the 
 Golden Fleece. He fights with 
 martial women, daughters of 
 Mars, from whom he takes a 
 
176 
 
 ting of Andromeda, or of the 
 celestial Woman and of her 
 Girdle; by that of the Whale; 
 by the rising of Medusa, and 
 by the setting of the Queen 
 Cassiope. 
 
 TENTH MONTH. 
 
 The Sun leaves the ram of 
 Phrixus and enters the sign of 
 the Bull. This transit is marked 
 by the setting of Orion, who 
 was in love with the Atlantides 
 or Pleiades; by that of Bootes, 
 the driver of the Oxen of Ica- 
 rus; by that of the river Eri- 
 danus; by the rising of the 
 Atlantides, and by that of the 
 Goat, the wife of Faunus. 
 
 ELEVENTH MONTH. 
 
 The Sun enters the sign of 
 the Twins, which transit is in- 
 dicated by the setting of the 
 Dog Procyon, by the cosmical 
 rising of the Great Dog, fol- 
 lowed by the stretching out of 
 the Hydra and by the rising in 
 the evening of the celestial 
 Swan. 
 
 TWELFTH MONTH. 
 The Sun enters the sign of 
 the Cancer, which corresponds 
 with the last month, indicated 
 
 magnificent girdle, and liber- 
 ates a Maiden exposed to a 
 Wliale or a Sea-monster, like 
 the one to which Andromeda, 
 the daughter of Cassiope, was 
 exposed. 
 
 TENTH LABOR. 
 
 Hercules, after his voyage 
 with the Argonauts, in order to 
 conquer the Ram, returns to 
 Hesperia to make the conquest 
 of the Oxen of Geryon; he 
 also kills a tyrannical Prince 
 who persecuted the Atlantides, 
 and arrives in Italy at the house 
 of P^aunus at the rising of the 
 Pleiades. 
 
 ELEVENTH LABOR. 
 
 Hercules conquers a terrible 
 Dog, the tail of which was a 
 Serpent, and the head of which 
 was bristling with serpents; he 
 defeats also Cygnus, or the 
 Prince Swan, at the time in 
 which the Dog-star scorches 
 the Earth with its fire. 
 
 TWELFTH LABOR. 
 
 Hercules travels in Hesperia 
 in order to gather Golden Ap- 
 ples guarded by a Dragon, 
 
177 
 
 by the setting of the Stream 
 of the Waterman and of the 
 Centaur; by the rising of the 
 Shepherd and his Sheep, at 
 the time when the constella- 
 tion of the Hercules Ingenicu- 
 lus is descending towards the 
 occidental regions called Hes- 
 peria; followed by the Polar 
 Dragon, the guardian of the 
 Apples growing in the gar- 
 den of the Hesperides; which 
 dragon he puts under his feet, 
 as marked in the sphere, and 
 which falls near him towards 
 the setting. 
 
 which, in our spheres, is near 
 the pole; according to others, 
 to carry off sheep with a Golden 
 Fleece. He is preparing to 
 make a sacrifice, and puts on a 
 robe dyed in the blood of a 
 Centaur whom he had slain at 
 the passage of a river. By 
 this robe he is consumed with 
 fire; he dies, and ends thus his 
 mortal career, in order to re- 
 sume his youth in Heaven, and 
 to enjoy there immortality. 
 
REFERENCE NOTES. 
 
 Note 1. For accounts of Crishna, see the Vishnu 
 Purana, pp. 491-665, trans, by Wilson; London, 1840. 
 Maurice, History of Hindostan, vol. i., p. 283; vol. ii., pp.- 
 324-479, 497, 563 ; London, 1802. Maurice, Indian An- 
 tiquities, vol. i., pp. 112, 113; vol. ii., p. 149; vol. iii., pp. 
 45-48, 95 ; London, 1874. Asiatic Researches, vol. i., 
 pp. 259-261, 273. Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. i., pp. 129- 
 134; London, 1836. Joguth Chunder Gangooly, Life and 
 Religion of the Hindoos, p. 134 ; Boston, i860. BhS,gavat- 
 Geeta : Cox, The Mythology of the Aryan Nations, vol. ii., 
 pp. 105, 130, 133, 137; London, 1870. Doane, Bible 
 Myths, pp. 498, 499; New York, 1883. Miiller, The 
 Origin and Growth of Religion, pp. 230, 261, 361 ; London, 
 1873. Prichard, An Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, pp. 
 283-292; London, 1873. Rawlinson, Religion of the 
 Ancient World, pp. 126-149; London. Williams, Hin- 
 duism, pp. 108-110, 144, 215; London, 1877. Bonwick, 
 Egyptian Belief, p. 168; London, 1878. Child, Progress 
 of Religious Ideas, vol. i., p. 72; New York, 1855. 
 Williams, Hinduism, pp. no, 119. Fiske, Myths and 
 Myth-Makers, pp. 104-107 ; Boston, 1877. 
 
 Note 2. For legends of the Hindoos, see Williams, 
 Indian Wisdom, p. 324; London, 1875. Gross, The 
 Heathen Religion, p. 124; Boston, 1856. Allen, India 
 Ancient and Modern, pp. 382, 383 ; London, 1856. Mau- 
 
i8o 
 
 rice, Indian Antiquities, vol. i., pp. 125-127; vol. iv., p. 
 372 ; London, 1867. Tod, History of Rajapoutane, p. 581. 
 Colenso, The Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv., p. 153. 
 Chambers' Encyclopaedia, art. Cherubim. Smith, Com- 
 prehensive Dictionary of the Bible, art. Cherubim. 
 Priestley, Comparison of the Institutes of Moses with the 
 Hindoos and Other Ancient Nations, pp. 35-49 ; North- 
 umberland, 1799. Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, 
 p. 13; London, 1868. Wake, Phallicism in Ancient Re- 
 ligions, pp. 46, 47. Baring-Gould, Legends of the 
 Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 148; New York, 1872. Mau- 
 rice, History of Hindustan, vol. i., p. 408 ; vol. ii., pp. 227 
 et seq. Child, Progress of Religious Ideas, vol. i., p. 3 ; 
 Mahabharata. 
 
 Note 3. For accounts of Buddha, see Rgya-Cher-rol- 
 pan, pp. 61, 6z, 69-82, 81, 97, 113, 178, 214, 259, 355, 
 374; Wasseljew, p. 95 ; Lotus, pp. xiv., xv., 82, 102, 104, 
 130; v., p. 106. Bunsen, The Angel Messiah, pp. 45-48 ; 
 London, 1880. Miiller, An Introduction to the Science 
 of Religion, pp. 28, 244. Hardy, Eastern Monarchism, 
 pp. 6, 62, 230; London, i860. Hardy, The Legends and 
 Theories of the Buddhists compared with History and 
 Science, pp. 40, 50, 52, 134; London, 1866. Beal, Ro- 
 mantic History of Buddha, pp. 244-256; London, 1875. 
 Rhys-Davids, Buddhism, pp. 36, 53, 129-204; London, 
 1881. Lillie, Buddha and Early Buddhism, pp. 68-179; 
 London, 1881. Lefmann, pp. 21, 51, 124. Buddhist Birth- 
 Stories, vol. i., pp. 69, 74, 113. Mara, Koppen, vol. i., 
 pp. 88, 94, 114. Seydel, pp. 163, 281. Dhammapada, 
 vol. vii., pp. 33, 334. Hue's Travels. Burnouf, Divya- 
 Avadana. Oswald, Secret of the East, pp. 135, 137; 
 Boston, 1883. Foucaux, p. 304. Sutta-Napatha, vol. iii., 
 
i8i 
 
 p. II. St. Hilaire, p. 44. Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol.? 
 .p. 159. Bulfinch, Age of Fable, p. 432; Boston, 1870. 
 Doane, Bible Myths, pp. 202, 371. Asiatic Researches, 
 vol. iii., pp. 285, 286. King, Gnostics and their Remains, 
 p. 167; London, 1884. Mahavagga, p. 16. Gatha, pp. 
 53, 143, 165. Plath, vol. ii., p. 2. Fuman, Ancient Faiths 
 and Modern, pp. 82 et seq.; New York, 1876. Miiller, A 
 History of Ancient Sanscrit Literature ; London, i860. 
 Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, pp. 56, 113; Lon- 
 don, 1868. Bunsen, The Angel Messiah, p. 33 ; London, 
 1880. 
 
 Note 4. For accounts of Mithra, see Lundy, Monu- 
 mental Christianity, p. 167 ; New York, 1876. Dupuis, 
 The Origin of All Religious Belief, pp. 246, 247 ; trans, 
 from the French, New Orleans, 1872. Higgins, Ana- 
 calypsis, vol. i., p. 218 ; vol. ii., pp. 58, 59, 6$, 99. Renan, 
 Hibbert Lectures, p. 33. Bonwick, Egyptian Belief, p. 
 240. King, Gnostics and their Remains, pp. 47, 51. 
 Higgins, Celtic Druids, p. 163 ; London, 1827. Child, 
 Progress of Religious Ideas, vol. i., pp. 3, 272, 279. The 
 Angel Messiah, p. 287. Colenso, The Pentateuch Ex- 
 amined, vol. iv., p. 153; London, 1863. Doane, Bible 
 Myths, 376. Bunce, Fairy Tales, p. 18 ; New York, 1878. 
 Dunlap, Mysteries of Adoni, p. 139; London, 1861. Bar- 
 ing-Gould, Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 17, 
 18; New York, 1872. Miiller, A History of Ancient San- 
 scrit Literature, pp. 405 et seq. Asiatic Researches, vol. v., 
 p. 270. Williams, Hinduism, pp. 24, 176, 214. Rawlin- 
 son, Herodotus, p. 171. Westropp, Ancient Symbol Wor- 
 ship, pp. 25, 47. Miiller, Chips from a German Workshop, 
 vol. ii., pp. 277, 290; London, 1876. Knight, Ancient 
 Art and Mythology, p. 156; Boston, 1876. 
 
1 82 
 
 Note 5. For accounts of Osiris, Horns, Isis, Neith, and 
 Sarapis, see the following authorities : Prichard, An Analy- 
 sis of Egyptian Mythology, pp. 55-109. Bonwick, Egyp- 
 tian Belief, pp. 140-186, 261, 287, 396, 404, 412. Renouf, 
 Religion of Ancient Egypt, pp. 83-93. Kenrick, Ancient 
 Egypt under the Pharaohs, vol. i., pp. 283, 424; New 
 York, 1852. Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. i., pp. 138, 304; 
 vol. ii., pp. 99, 102. Maurice, Indian Antiquities, vol. i., 
 p. 127 ; vol. ii., pp. 14, 219. Rawlinson, Hibbert Lectures, 
 p. 105. The History of Herodotus, book ii., pp. 170, 171 ; 
 New York, 1871 . Baring-Gould, Legends of the Patriarchs 
 and Prophets, p. 19. Septhenes, The Religion of the 
 Ancient Greeks, p. 214; trans, from the French; London, 
 1788. King, Gnostics and their Remains, p. 71, note, 
 p. 109. Draper, History of the Conflict between Religion 
 and Science, pp.47, 48 ; New York, 1876. Cory, Ancient 
 Fragments, pp. 80, 81 ; London, 1876. The History of 
 Cornelius Tacitus, book v., ch. iii. ; London, 1831. Knight, 
 Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 98; New York, 1874. 
 Goldziher, Mythology among the Hebrews, pp. 22, 127, 
 320, 322, 392, 446; London, 1877. Rawlinson, The Re- 
 ligions of the Ancient World, pp. 17 et seq. ; London. 
 Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 5. Inman, 
 Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names, vol. i., p. 
 159; vol. ii., pp. 284, 679, 767, 831; London, 1872. 
 Squires, The Serpent Symbol, pp. 39, 78 ; New York, 
 1851. Oort, Bible for Learners, vol. i., p. 301; Boston, 
 1878. Miiller, Origin and Growth of Religion, p. 130; 
 London, 1873. Cox, The Mythology of the Aryan Nations, 
 vol. ii., pp. 115, 125, 157; London, 1870. Dupuis, The 
 Origin of All Religions, pp. 73, 256, 263, 397. Child, 
 Progress of Religious Ideas, pp. 257, 259. Renouf, The 
 Story of Ancient Egypt, pp. 34, 35 ; New York, 1887. 
 
i83 
 
 Gross, Heathen Religion, pp. 122, 123; Boston, 1856. 
 Dunlap, Vestiges of the Spirit History of Man, pp. 35, 40, 
 108; New York, 1858. Dunlap, The Mysteries of Adoni, 
 pp. 124, 125; London, 1861. Murray, Manual of Mythol- 
 ogy^ PP' 347' 34^ 5 N^w York, 1876. Inman, Ancient 
 Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism, pp. 13, 14, 50 ; 
 London, 1869. 
 
 Note 6. For authorities quoted in account of Her- 
 cules, see Steinthal's I^egend of Samson in Goldziher's 
 Hebrew Mythology, pp. 392-419, also pp. 22, 137, 138. 
 Volney, Researches in Ancient History, p. 41, also note on 
 p. 42. Murray, Manual of Mythology, pp. 124, 247-263. 
 Bulfinch, Age of Fable, pp. 200, 201. Dillaway, Roman 
 Antiquities, p. 124; New York, 1876. Cox, Mythology 
 of the Aryan Nations, vol. i., pp. 84, 107 ; vol. ii., pp. 47, 48, 
 72 ; London, 1870. Cox, Tales of Ancient Greece, p. xxvi., 
 xxvii., 69 et seq.; London, 1880. Montfaucon, PAntiquitd 
 Expliqude, vol. i., p. 213; Paris, 1772. Herodotus, book 
 ii., chap. xiv. ; New York, 187 1. Chambers' Encyclopaedia, 
 art. Hercules. Cory, Ancient Fragments, p. 36, note 
 London, 1876; Monumental Christianity, p. 399. Oort 
 Bible for Learners, vol. i., pp. 414-422, 416. Knappert 
 The Religion of Israel, p. 61 ; Boston, 1878. Inman, An^ 
 cient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names, vol. ii., p. 679 
 Doane, Bible Myths, p. 72,, note 2. Volney, Ruins, p. 41 
 Williams, Hinduism, pp. 108, 167. Asiatic Researches 
 vol. v., p. 270. Buckley, Cities of the World, pp. 41, 42 
 Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, pp. 167, 265 ; New York 
 1875. Smith, Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 174; New 
 York, 1876. Knight, Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 92 
 Tacitus, Annals, book ii., ch. lix. ; London, 1831. Mau 
 rice, Indian Antiquities, vol. ii., p. 155. Kreightley, The 
 
i84 
 
 Mythology of Ancient Greece, p. 215; New York, 1843. 
 King, Gnostics and their Remains, pp. 48-70. Prichard, 
 An Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, pp. 49, 50, 75, 95, 
 113, 119. Giles, Hebrew and Christian Records, p. 86^/ 
 seq.; London, 1853. Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, 
 book v., ch. xxii., London, 1630. Higgins, Anacalypsis, 
 vol. i., pp. 237-243. Taylor, Diegesis, pp. 214, 232. Du- 
 puis, Origin of All Religious Belief, pp. 237-257. Lundy, 
 Monumental Christianity, p. 399. Dunlap, Mysteries of 
 Adoni, pp. 94-96. Cox, The Mythology of the Aryan 
 Nations, vol. i., pp. 84, 107; vol. ii., pp. 47, 48. Child, 
 Progress of Religious Ideas, vol. i., p. 214. Inman, An- 
 cient Faiths and Modern, p. 304 ; New York, 1876. Faber, 
 Origin of Pagan Idolatry, vol. i., p. 443 ; Fergusson, Tree 
 and Serpent Worship, pp. 10, 13, 31. 
 
 Note 7. For accounts of Bacchus, see Dupuis, Origin 
 of All Religious Belief, pp. 80-175, 257, 352. Higgins, 
 Anacalypsis, vol. i., pp. 221, 305, 322, 328 ; vol. ii., pp. 19, 
 102. Prichard, An Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, pp. 3, 
 21, 63, 70. Taylor, Diegesis, pp. 12, 187, 191, 212, 213. 
 Hymns of Orpheus. King, Gnostics and their Remains, 
 p. 49. Oort, Bible for Learners, vol. iii., p. 67. Bell's 
 Pantheon, vol. i., p. 118, art. Bacchus. Montfaucon, 
 TAntiquitd Expliqude, vol. i., p. 211 ; Paris, 1722. Faber, 
 Origin of Pagan Idolatry, vol. i., p. 443. Inman, Ancient 
 Faiths and Modern, p. 304; London, 1876. Bulfinch, 
 Age of Fable, p. 220; Boston, 1870. Cox, Tales of 
 Ancient Greece, p. xxxii. ; London, 1876. Higgins, Cel- 
 tic Druids, p. 127; London, 1827. Bonwick, Egyptian 
 Belief, p. 212; London, 1878. Lundy, Monumental Chris- 
 tianity, p. 125. Dunlap, Vestiges of the Spirit History of 
 Man, p. 217; New York, 1858. Taylor, Eleusinian and 
 
i8s 
 
 Bacchic Mysteries. Rawlinson, The Religions of the 
 Ancient World. 
 
 Note 8. For accounts of the Scandinavian gods and 
 goddesses, see Mallet, Northern Antiquities. Goldziher, 
 Mythology among the Hebrews, p. 430. Knight, Ancient 
 Art and Mythology, p. 85. Chambers' Encyclopaedia, art. 
 Yule. Bulfinch, Age of Fable. 
 
 Note 9. For accounts of Ostara and the Ancient 
 Druids, see Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. ii., pp. 59, 99, 108, 
 109-259. Chambers' Encyclopasdia, art. Easter. Dupuis, 
 Origin of All Religious Belief, pp. 237, 257. Higgins, Celtic 
 Druids, p. 163; Taylor, Diegesis, pp. 167, 184. Lundy, 
 Monumental Christianity, p. 167. Forlong, Rivers of Life, 
 or Faiths of Men, vol. i., p. 355 ; London, 1883. Bulfinch, 
 Age of Fable. 
 
 Note 10. For authorities on China, see Semedo, His- 
 tory of China, p. 289. Thornton, History of China, vol. i., 
 pp. 30, 137; London, 1844. Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. ii., 
 p. 227. Child, Progress Religious Ideas, vol. i., pp. 206- 
 210. Colenso, Pentateuch Examined, vol. iv., p. 152. 
 Baring-Gould, Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets, 
 p. 28. Doane, Bible Myths, p. 14. Gross, The Heathen 
 Religion, p. 60; Boston, 1856, Cutzlaff's Voyages, p. 154. 
 Legge, The Religions of China. 
 
 Note 11. For accounts of Quetzalcoatle, see Kings- 
 borough, Mexican Antiquities, vol. vL, pp. 5, 166, 167, 
 176, 220, 361, 369; London, 1831. Amberly, Religious 
 Belief, pp. 49 et seq.; New York, 1877 ; Squires, The Ser- 
 pent Symbol, pp. 161, 175; Brinton, Myths of the New 
 
1 86 
 
 World, pp. 95, i8o, i8i, 203, 204; New York, 1868. 
 Lundy, Monumental Christianity, p. 393. Inman, Ancient 
 Faiths and Modern, pp. 33-37 ; New York, 1876. Bar- 
 ing-Gould, Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 119. 
 Westropp, Ancient Symbol Worship. Humboldt, Re- 
 searches, vol. i., p. 91 ; London, 18 14. Prescott, History 
 of the Conquest of Mexico, vol. i., p. 60 ; Philadelphia, 
 1873. Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 37 ; Lon- 
 don, 1868. Acosta, The Natural and Moral History of the 
 Indies, p. 513; London, 1604. Forlong, Rivers of Life, 
 vol. i., pp. 94, 143, 242; vol. ii., pp. 94, 490, 499, 501. 
 Rdville, The Native Religions of Mexico and Peru. 
 
 Note 12. For accounts of Indian Saviours, see Squires, 
 Serpent Symbol, pp. 187-192. Schoolcraft, Notes of the 
 Iroquois. Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. i., pp. 496, 497, 501. 
 
 Note 13. For accounts of Tammuz or Adonis (Adonai 
 in Hebrew), see Prichard, Ancient Egyptian Mythology, 
 pp. 64-66. King, Gnostics, p. 102. Cox, The Mythology 
 of the Aryan Race, vol. ii., pp. 84, 113, 125. Inman, 
 Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names, vol. ii., pp. 
 213, 350. Lundy, Monumental Christianity, pp. 216, 224. 
 Doane, Bible Myths, p. 220. Colenso, Lectures, pp. 297. 
 Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. ii., pp. 99, 114. Colenso, The 
 Pentateuch Examined, vol. i., p. 115, App. Dupuis, 
 Origin of All Religious Belief, pp. 161, 233. Taylor, 
 Diegesis, pp. 162-164. Gross, The Heathen Religion, p. 
 287. Dunlap, Vestiges of the Spirit History of Man, p. 216. 
 Dunlap, The Mysteries of Adoni, p. 23. Dunlap, Sod the 
 Son of the Man, pp. vii., 39; London, 1861. Mliller, In- 
 troduction to the Science of Religion, p. 186. Ezekiel 
 viii., 14; Jeremiah xliv. 16-22. King, Gnostics, p. 91. 
 
i87 
 
 Note 14. For Accounts of the legends of the Chaldeans 
 and Babylonians, see Bonwick, Egyptian Belief, pp. 28, 44. 
 Smith, Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 22, 28, 29, 42, 44 ; 
 New York, 1876. Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, pp. 167, 
 397 ; New York, 1875. Goldziher, Mythology among the 
 Hebrews, pp. 316-330, 396. Murray, Manual of Mythol- 
 ogy, p. 86. Bunsen, Angel Messiah, p. 108. Dunlap, Sod 
 the Son of the Man, pp. 5, 6. Colenso, The Pentateuch 
 Examined, vol. iv., p. 269. Fiske, Myths and Myth- 
 Makers, p. 72; Boston, 1877. Miiller, History of An- 
 cient Sanscrit Literature. Williams, Indian Wisdom, 
 p. 29 ; London, 1875. Rawlinson, The Religions of the 
 Ancient World, pp. 48 et seq. 
 
 Note 15. For accounts of the Essenes, see Lillie, 
 Buddha and Early Buddhism, pp. 58-67, 203-221. King, 
 Gnostics, p. 23. Oswald, Secret of the East, p. 126. 
 Ginsburg, The Essenes : Their History and Doctrines. 
 Inman, Ancient Faiths and Modern, pp. 141, 193, 197. 
 De Quincey, Historical and Critical Essays. Hitchcock, 
 Christ the Spirit. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abraham, 49, 63, 87. 
 Achilles, 73, 132, 133. 
 Achyuta, 151. 
 Aditi, 41. 
 
 Aderenedesa, 148, 150. 
 Adonai, 132. 
 Adonis, 84, 132, 133. 
 Afrasiab, 163. 
 Agathon, iii. 
 Agni, 127, 140. 
 Ahriman, 159-165. 
 Aithra, 151. 
 Alcmene, 68, 170. 
 Alexander, 42, 98, 125, 126. 
 Algonquins, 8^- 
 Ananda, 54, 56. 
 Andromeda, 176. 
 Apis, 88. 
 
 Aquarius, 86, 154, 174, 175. 
 Aries, 30, 108, 132, 154, 156. 
 Aristeus, 174. 
 Aristobulus, 114, 115. 
 Arjuna, 39, 50. 
 Arusha, 151. 
 
 Aryans, 28, 29, 32, 33-36, 
 43, 59, 62, 88, 109, 140^ 
 
 Asita, 51, 154. 
 
 Asoka, 58, 91, 98, 130. 
 Augeas, 174. 
 
 Baal, 88. 
 
 Babel, 48, 80, 86, 87. 
 
 Bacchus, 71-73. 
 
 Bala-Rama, 49. 
 
 Baldur, 74, 139. 
 
 Ballaji, 129. 
 
 Baptism, 33, 45, 59, 61, 64, 74, 
 
 79, 85, 156. 
 Brahma, 44, 48, 57, 127, 153. 
 Buddha, 49-59, 98, 100, 109, 
 
 129, 143, 153-158. 
 Buddhists, 48, 49, 54, 91, 93, 
 
 97, 108, 130, 143. 
 
 Cadmus, 71. 
 
 Capricornus, 32, 49, 86, 155, 
 
 163, 174. 
 Cassiope, 175. 
 Ceres, 72. 
 Chandragupta, 91. 
 Chemosh, 88. 
 Christ, 30, 56, 60, 66, 68, 148, 
 
 150. 
 Crishna, 37-43, 49, 50, 66, 
 
 IIS, 128, 129, 151. 
 
I go 
 
 Cross, 32-34, 40, 45, 63, 74, 
 79, 85, 99, 109, 112, 115, 
 124-143. 
 
 Crucified, 31-33. 4°, 73, 7^, 
 84, 110-116, 129, 133. 
 
 Cybele, 73, 74. 
 
 Cyrene, 175. 
 
 Dahana, 41. 
 
 Danae, 151. 
 
 Daphne, 41. 
 
 David, 74. 
 
 Deluge, 48, 61, 67, 68, 74, 77, 
 
 80,85. 
 Devadatta, 52. 
 Devaki, 37, 41, 66, 151. 
 Devil, 43, 78, 81, 89, 102, 103, 
 
 143, 161. 
 Diana, 174. 
 Diomedes, 175. 
 Dionysius, 71. 
 Dove, 45, 85, 130. 
 
 Easter, 75, 76, 162. 
 Eden, 47, 61, 74, 76, 85, 162. 
 Edues, 83. 
 Elisha, 49. 
 Eopuco, 78. 
 
 Essenes, 91-ICX), 108, 116-119. 
 Eucharist, 23, $9, 61, 64, 72, 
 79, 85. 
 
 Faun us, 176. 
 
 Fish, 33, 45, 49, 69, 154, 155, 
 163, 175- 
 
 Frey, 74. 
 Frigga, 74. 
 
 Gautama, 57, lOO. 
 Geryon, 176. 
 Gethsemane, 90. 
 Gnostics, 115. 
 Goliah, 74. 
 Gymnosophists, 97, 98. 
 
 Hebrews, 88, 89. 
 
 Hell or Hades, 32, ;22, 40, 56, 
 
 59, 60, 65, 74, 79, 84, 89. 
 Hera, 68. 
 
 Hercules, 68-70, 151, 170-177. 
 Homer, 42. 
 Horus, 65, 66, 124, 148, 150, 
 
 168. 
 
 Incarnation, 34, 42, 49, 50, 82, 
 
 83, 89. 
 Indra, 41, 128, 129. 
 lo, 151. 
 lokaste, 151. 
 Iroquois, 83. 
 Isaac, 49. 
 Isaiah, 42. 
 
 Isis, 65-67, 148, 150, 166-169. 
 Ixion, 73, 131, 132. 
 Izdubar, 87. 
 
 Jesus, 30, 60, 69, 148, 150. 
 Jesus Christ, 38, 66, 84, 85, 
 
 89-122, 127, 129, 132, 134, 
 
 137, 151. 152, 154- 
 
191 
 
 [o8- 
 
 [6i, 
 
 Jonah, 49, 6i. 
 Joshua, 49. 
 
 Kansa, 37, 38, 115, 154. 
 Kantaka, 53, 155. 
 
 Ladon, 71. 
 
 Lamb, 30, ^3, 60, 66, 76, 
 III, 156, 161-164. 
 
 Macara, 153. 
 
 Magi, 60, 108, 147, 148 
 
 Maha-Maya, 50, 153. 
 
 Mahomet, 152. 
 
 Manco Capac, 83. 
 
 Mara, 52, 156. 
 
 MStanga, 50, 
 
 Mayas, 82. 
 
 Mediator, 43, 60, 83, 84. 
 
 Medusa, 176. 
 
 Meleagros, 73, 132. 
 
 Michabou, 83. 
 
 Michael, 89. 
 
 Mithras, 59, 61. 
 
 Moloch, 88. 
 
 Moses, 49, 62, 68, 71, 72, 88, 
 
 91, 93, 94, 164. 
 Munchalinda, 156. 
 Mutra, 49. 
 Muyscas, 82. 
 Mylitta, 84, 135. 
 
 Nanda, 154. 
 Nared, 37. 
 Nazarene, 98, 1 15. 
 
 Neith, 62, 65. 
 Neptune, 174. 
 Nigban, 57. 
 Nisan, 89. 
 Nutria, 73. 
 
 Odin, 74. 
 
 CEdipus, 151. 
 
 Ojibways, 83, 
 
 Ormuzd, 1 5 9- 1 65. 
 
 Orpheus, 156. 
 
 Osiris, 62-65, 124, 134, 156, 
 
 166-169. 
 Ostara, 74. 
 
 Pantheus, 72. 
 Pasiphae, 175. 
 Pegasus, 175. 
 Perseus, 151. 
 Pharaoh, 50, 68. 
 Pluto, 157. 
 Prometheus, 73, 132, 175. 
 
 Quetzalcoatle, 77-83, 143. 
 
 Rama, 38. 
 
 Redeemer, 43, 66, 72, 163. 
 
 Resurrection, 33, 65, 72, 79, 
 
 84, 85, 89. 
 Rudraka, 52. 
 
 Sagittarius, 154, 163, 174. 
 Sais, 148, 149. 
 Saktideva, 49. 
 Sakaya Muni, 90. 
 
192 
 
 Sakya Sunha, 155. 
 
 Tien, 75, 76. 
 
 
 Samson, 49, 69, 87. 
 
 Trefoil, 45, 63. 
 
 
 Sandon, 87. 
 
 Triangle, 45, 134. 
 
 
 Sandracottus, 91. 
 
 Trinity, 29, 41, 44, 
 
 64, 74, 76, 
 
 Saviour, 28, 36, 41, 43, 51, 56, 
 
 78, 83, 85, 134, 
 
 156. 
 
 66-79, 84, 100, 127, 128. 
 
 Tripod, 45. 
 
 
 Scorpio, 156, 174. 
 
 Typhon, 168. 
 
 
 Semele, 71. 
 
 
 
 Serapis, 68, 107, 122, 123. 
 
 Upananda, 154. 
 
 
 Siddhdrtha, 50, 91. 
 
 Uriel, 89. 
 
 
 Siva, 44, 47, 48, 127. 
 
 
 
 Sochiquetzal, 78-81, 152. 
 
 Virgin, 29, 30, 36, 
 
 41, 65-84, 
 
 Soma, 47. 
 
 128, 147-156, 166-169, 173 
 
 Sujata, 156. 
 
 Vishnu, 36, 37,41, 
 
 42, 44, 49, 
 
 Swastica, 130, 140, 154, 155. 
 
 129, 155- 
 
 
 Swayambhura, 48. 
 
 Wittoba, 129. 
 
 
 Talmud, 113. 
 
 
 
 Tammuz, 84, 85, 132, 136. 
 
 Yar, 89. 
 
 
 Taurus, 154. 
 
 Yule, 74. 
 
 
 Tezcatlipoca, 77-79. 
 
 
 
 Thasos, 70, 171. 
 
 Zerban, 87. 
 
 
 Therapeutse, 93-98. 
 
 Zeus, 68, 136, 151. 
 
 
 Theseus, 151. 
 
 Zomo, 83. 
 
 
 Thor, 74, 138, 139, 140. 
 
 Zoroaster, 62, 160. 
 
 
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