UC-NRLF T LVi^j $B 27 76=^ -^t- ^ ■ RANKD.BULLAmAAA 5i y^ «?' o,^ .<> LIBRARY OF THE University of California, GIFT OF^ B/VCUVlA /O. /^^,M.^.7-^^ Received J^CUyu ' ?^ . Accession No. 7 O/^^Q . Class No. V^S^.. r Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/apistophilontovaOObullrich THE APISTOPHILON RELIGION AND AGNOSTICISM THE STORY OF THEIR EVO- LUTION IN VERSE 12 Mo,, $K50 BY 'FRANK D. BULLARD, A, M., M, D. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS " In brief, ' The Apistophilon,' is the presentatiOQ in metrical form of the mysteries of life from the standpoiQts of the devotee, tb© doubter and disbeliever. "Not only tbat but tbe quatrains are so instiQCt witb the charm of felicitous expression, streogth and clearoess that to read them is like listening to tbe music of a n)aster. In executior), tbey are alrrjost faultless, and the genuioe literary beauty of the poem is oq ever- preseot cbarm."— Los Angeles Express. "Tbe gBQius of a true poet appears in the lioes that are given tbe three characters to speak. Streogtb, beauty and fiQish of tbe intellectual roaster, flash at ooe froro every page of tbe striking work."— The Capital. "One of the oeatest books of the year."— Los Angeles Herald. " Throughout tbe tbought aod sentimeot are exalted the in)ag- ery noble aod the expressioQ full of poetic feeliQg."— The Los Angeles Times. OPINIONS OF CRITICS "Your work certainly shows a fine insight iQto the beart of tbings aod a felicity that is rare." -Elbert Hubbard, Editor of the Pbilistine. "A remarkable poeri), whether the reader be Christian or Agnos- tic, he will find his most forceful arguroeots presented in beautiful language aod with musical swiog-"— Wm. A. Cheoey, ex-Superior Judge of Los Angeles County. "Vigorous, lucid, beautiful, that rarest of all literary results— a genuine poen)."— Lou V. Cbapin. "Faith aod uofaitb say their say in quatrains that remind us of 'Omar Khayyam' aod Mo Menjoriaro.' Takeo all in all, this is a gen- uine addition to tbe realri) of select literature of the Englisb lan- guage."— Rev. Geo. Coct#ao, D. D., Dean of the University of South- ern Califoroia. THE APISTOPHILON ¥XjjQ.jUm^ THE APISTOPHILON A NEMESIS OF FAITH BY FRANK D. BULLARD, A. M., M. D. CHICAGO R. R. DONNELLEY ^ SONS COMPANY 1899 Copyrighted, 1899 Bv FRANK D. BULLARD, A. M., M. D. TO ROBERT J. BELFORD THERE BLOOMS AN AMARANTH WITHIN THE SOUL WHOSE PLEASANT PERFUME FILLS THE GARDEN FULL, MEN CALL THE FLOWER FRIENDSHIP, AND FOR ITS SAKE, BELFORD, I DEDICATE TO YOU THIS SCROLL. THE APISTOPHILON Notes I Recollection is the only Paradise from which we cannot be turned out. Richter. II And the night shall be filled with music And the cares that infest the day Shall fold their tents like the Arabs And as silently steal away. Longfellow — The Day is Done. Ill Ah, happy years 1 once more who would not be a boy. Byron— Childe Harold. Prologue When crooning winds soft in the gloaming blow, And lull to sleep with music sad and low The drooping eyelids of the drowsy day, *Tis sweet to dwell upon the long ago. II When dreamy reminiscence fondly cheers And to myself my former self appears. Then fade the fretful follies of the day. And fain I see the wraiths of yester years. Ill First skips the merry, laughing, careless boy. Whose untamed spirit bubbles o*er with joy. Who little recks the laws of creed or school, — Ah, his the heart that pleasure could not cloy! 9 NOTES IV "Orthodoxy, my lord," said Bishop Warburton in a whis- per, "orthodoxy is my doxy — heterodoxy is another man*s doxy/' Joseph Priestley — Memoirs. I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope And gather dust and chaff, and call To what I feel is Lord of all. And faintly trust the larger hope. Tennyson — In Memoriam. VI The man of wisdom is the man of years. Young — Night Thoughts. ID PROLOGUE IV Then firmly treads the self-sufficient youth, Sure he knows all, that all his thoughts are truth. Firm in belief that he is orthodox, — That blissful fallacy of faith, forsooth ! V Then comes the man that trusts the wider hope. Who tries to give his faith a broader scope. Who puts a mystic meaning to his creed. And yearns for light and in the dark doth grope. VI Last walks with care he of the riper age. Who studies life not from the printed page. But cons the lessons taught in Nature's school. For wisdom is the Mecca of the sage. II NOTES VII To-day is not yesterday: We ourselves change; how can our Works and Thoughts, if they are always to be the fittest, continue always the same? Change, indeed, is painful, yet ever needful; and if Memory have its force and worth, so also has Hope. Carlyle — Essays, Characteristics, 12 PROLOGUE VII The Disbeliever, Doubter, Devotee, — The Boy from all such quests and questions free- Are all myself, and oft in argument I hear them in the halls of Memory. UTSriVLRSITY 13 Notes And the earth was waste and void: and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the spirit of God was brooding upon the face of the waters. And God said. Let there be light: and there was light. Genesis i : 2-3 — Revised Version, Marginal Reading. II He stretcheth out the North over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. Job 26: 7. He sitteth upon the circle of the earth. Isaiah 40:22. And God said. Let the earth put forth grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit bearing fruit after its kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth: and it was so. Genesis i: ii. Ill And God created the great sea monsters, * * * and every winged fowl after its kind: and God saw that it was good. And God made the beast of the earth after its kind. Genesis i: 21-25. And the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7. H The Apistophilon THE DEVOTEE Ere Time was born there was but empty space. And gloomy darkness filled the utmost place ; But when God's spirit brooded o'er the deep. Then shone the light made splendent by His Grace, II God hung the earth within the ambient air, And gave to land and sea their proper shares- Then sat He on the circle of the earth, And bade the barren dust a harvest bear. Ill Then fish and bird and brute of ev'ry kind Created were by fiat of His mind, And when He breathed the breath of life in man The conscious soul was then in him confined. 15 NOTES IV After God had made all other creatures, he created man, male and female, * * * after his own image, having the law of God written in their hearts, and the power to fulfill it; and yet under a possibility of transgressing, being left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject to change. Beside this law written in their hearts they received a command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Westminster Confession, Chap. 4, Sec. 2. V Our first parents, being seduced by the subtlety and tempta- tion of Satan, sinned in eating the forbidden fruit. This their sin God was pleased, according to his wise and holy counsel, to permit, having purposed to order it to his own glory. They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupted nature conveyed to all their posterity, descending from them by ordi- nary generation. Westminster Confession, Chap. 6, Sec. i, 3. VI For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, I Peter 3:18. 16 THE APISTOPHILON IV His fated purpose better to fulfill, God gave to man that priceless gift, free-will ; Then broke he faith with God, to learn forsooth The sorrow-knowledge got of Good and 111. Ah, sad it is that in the Serpent's sting There lurked the virus of eternal sin To taint the blood of yet unfallen man ! Still worse that such should make us all akin ! VI Thanks be to God before whom nations kneel. That sent the Great Physician man to heal. Whose blood upon the cruel cross was shed. The poison from the wound of Sin to steal. '7 NOTES VII For if the word spoken through angels prove steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Hebrews 2: 2, 3. VIII The common doctrine is, that the conscious existence of the soul after the death of the body is unending; that there is no repentance nor reformation in the future world; that those who depart this life unreconciled to God remain forever in this state of alienation, and therefore are forever sinful and miser- able. This is the doctrine of the whole Christian Church, of the Greeks, of the Latins, and of all the great historical Protes- tant bodies. Hodge — Systematic Theology. IX By the decree of God, for the manifestations of his glory, some men and angels are predestined into everlasting life, and others foreordained to everlasting death. Westminster Confession, Chap. 3, Sec. 3. As God appointed the elect unto glory, so hath He, by the eternal and free purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore, they who are elected being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ. Westminster Confession, Chap. 3, Sec. 6. 18 THE APISTOPHILON VII As man is freely offered a relief, How can he justly charge to God his grief If he neglects so great a remedy, And spurns that only balm for sin — belief? VIII Shall pampered Dives never feel a pain. Or Lazarus for virtue reap no gain ? A Hell of torment or a Heaven of bliss Will be their just desert, else life is vain. IX And when I think but for His saving blood, I, too, were doomed to meet the wrath of God, How can I pay the debt of love to Him, Who Calv'ry's thorny path for me has trod ? 19 NOTES X Now to condemn all mankind for the sin of Adam and Eve; to let the innocent suffer for the guilty; to keep any one alive in torture forever and ever: these actions are simply mag- nified copies of what bad men do. No juggling with ' * Divine justice and mercy*' can make them anything else. Clifford — The Ethics of Religion. XI This must be said to all kinds and conditions of men: that if God holds all mankind guilty for the sin of Adam, if He has visited upon the innocent the punishment of the guilty, if He is to torture any single soul forever — then it is wrong to worship Him. Clifford — The Ethics of Religion. XII Satan is a scarecrow set up by the clergy in the spiritual vineyard. Richter. Myself am Heaven and Hell. Omar Khayyam. 20 THE APISTOPHILON THE doubter: -» X Oh, shame upon that petty savage God That slakes His cruel anger in the blood Of His dear Son, the gentle Prince of Peace; 'Twere better far the culprit felt the rod. XI Out on the foolish fable of the fall That thro' the lapse of One sin came to all. Or that into an unearned Heaven of bliss. We, meanly, thro* Another's merit crawl. XII Myself am Heaven or myself am Hell ; As love or hate within my bosom dwell; My weak and trembling spirit to torment. No grinning demon waits the parting knell. az NOTES XIII The cruelty of a Fijian god, who, represented as devouring the souls of the dead, may be supposed to inflict torture during the process, is small compared with the cruelty of a God who condemns men to tortures which are eternal: and the ascrip- tion of this cruelty, though habitual in ecclesiastical formulas, * * * is becoming so intolerable to the better natured, that while some theologians distinctly deny it, others quietly drop it out of their teaching. Clearly this change cannot cease until the belief in Hell and Damnation disappear. Spencer — Principles of Sociology. XIV But neither nature nor the soul bears one trace of three divine persons. Nature is no Trinitarian. It gives no hint, not a glimpse of a tri-personal author. * * * The sun and stars say nothing of a God of three persons. Channing — Unitarian Christianity. XV And the Gileadites took the fords of Jordan against the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said. Let me go over, the men of Gilead said unto him. Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said. Nay, then said they unto him. Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right: then they laid hold on him, and slew him at the fords of Jordan. Judges 12: 5, 6. THE APISTOPHILON XIII The day of awful vengeance, day of ire. The crackling furnace of a Hell of fire. That Coward-castle*s threat, to live aright No longer minds intelligent require. N XIV Fie on the church that curses with its ban. For simple unbelief a thinking man ! Because he holds that three times one are three And never one, is he forever damned? XV Then out upon the narrow selfish view That keeps God's blessings for a favored few. Who chance to know a dogma's shibboleth. And ev'ry Sabbath fill a church's pew. as NOTES XVI Christ came to give us a religion — but this is not all. By a wise and beautiful ordination of Providence He was sent to show forth His religion in himself. Channing. When a man becomes a Christian the natural process is this: The Living Christ enters into his soul. Development begins. The quickening Life seizes upon his soul, assimilates around the elements, and begins to fashion it, according to the great Law of Conformity to Type; this fashioning takes a specific form. Drummond — Natural Law in the Spiritual World XVII Jesus founded religion in Humanity, as Socrates founded philosophy, as Aristotle founded science. No revolution will lead us not to join religion to the grand and intellectual and moral life at the head of which beams the name of Jesus. Renan — Life of Jesus. XVIII In a happy world there must be sorrow and pain, and in a moral world the knowledge of evil is indispensable. * * * We do not find that evil has been interpolated into the universe from without; we find that, on the contrary, it is an indispen- sable part of the dramatic whole. God is a creator of evil, and from the eternal scheme of things diabolism is forever excluded. FisKE — Through Nature to God. 24 THE APISTOPHILON XVI When to God's mind the time was fully ripe From human eyes the tears of sin to wipe. He sent to earth His Son, the Nazarene, To show the human race the perfect Type. XVII He placed the warlike eagle 'neath the dove. He put the Golden Rule of life above The sordid maxims of a selfish age. And showed to man the Father's tender love. XVIII The many evils of environment As purging fire to burn out dross were sent. For thus the gold of life must be refined. Nor were they e'er decreed for punishment. as NOTES XIX In religion What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it, and approve it with a text. Shakespeare — Merchant of Venice. XX We know, and what is better we feel inwardly, that reli- gion is the basis of civil society, and the source of all good, and of all comfort. Burke — French Revolution. XXI And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on Him, saying. Art thou the Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answered, and rebuking him, said. Dost thou not even fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: But this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said, Jesus, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom. And He said unto him. Verily, I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise. Luke 23: 39-42. 26 THE APISTOPHILON XIX Who follows right in hope of greater gain. Who shrinks from Sin for fear of future pain, Who only bears the cross to wear the crown. Abstains for naught and labors all in vain. XX 'Twere better to do right just for right's sake. And not because Fear bids the spirit quake, Yet offered prize or threatened pain ofttimes Of careless boys much better pupils make. XXI Did aught but selfish, craven fear induce The thief upon the cross to cease abuse? Could he serve Hell and at the last repent. And ride to bliss on such a lame excuse ? 37 NOTES XXII We crave to have the supreme hours of our existence lighted up by thoughts and motives, such as we can measure beside the common acts of our daily existence, so that each hour of our life up to the grave may be linked to the life beyond the grave as one continuous whole. "Bound each to each in natural piety.** Frederick Harrison — The Soul and the Future Life. XXIII Far beyond the limits of our visible world are to be found atoms innumerable which have never been united to form bodies, or which if once united, have been again dispersed, falling silently through immeasurable intervals of time and space. As everywhere throughout the All the same conditions are repeated, so must the phenomena repeat. Tyndall — The Belfast Address. XXIV Above us, below us, beside us, therefore, are worlds with- out end; and this, when considered, must dissipate every thought of a deflection of the universe by the gods. The worlds come and go, attracting new atoms out of limitless space, or dispersing their own particles. Tyndall — The Belfast Address. 38 THE APISTOPHILON XXII Then let each hour but forge a golden link. Between this life and that beyond the brink, " Bound each to each in natural piety," Nor let the soul from fear of death to shrink. THE disbeliever: XXIII Cold and long the night of chaos, ere the morn Lighted the star-mist at existence' dawn. Long was the star-mist driven by mere Force, Ere chaos ended and the Sun was born. XXIV The stars develop from the driven mist. The blazing suns from nebulae subsist. The wandering planets follow in their train. They were not, are, and shall they e'er persist? NOTES XXV Apparently the universally coexistent forces of attraction and repulsion, which, as we have seen, necessitate rhythm in all minor changes throughout the universe, also necessitate rhythm in the totality of its changes, produce now an immeas- urable period during which the attractive forces predominating cause universal concentration, and then an immeasurable period during which the repulsive forces predominate, cause universal diffusion — alternate eras of Evolution and Dissolution. Spencer — First Principles. XXVI And thus there is suggested the conception of a past during which there have been successive Evolutions analagous to that which is now^ going on, and a future during which other such Evolutions may go on, ever the same in principle, but never the same in concrete results. Spencer — First Principles. XXVII Matter, Motion, Force, are but symbols of the Unknown Reality. A Power of which the nature remains forever incon- ceivable, and to which no limits in Time or Space can be imagined, works in us certain effects. These effects have cer- tain likeness of kind, the most general of which are classed together under the names of Matter, Motion, and Force. Spencer — First Principles. 30 THE APISTOPHILON XXV The moon, that teemed with life, is now a crust, And so the stars will change, as all things must. Evolve, decay, and crumble back to dust. Then shapeless into space again be thrust. XXVI As often to her purpose it is meet Our Mother Nature shall the round repeat; And of her large and never weary heart. This cycle grand is but a single beat. XXVII Far beyond the farthermost reach of thought The great Unknowable will e'er be sought; Eternal Matter and inherent Force Have all the tangled web of Nature wrought. 3« NOTES XXVIII The recognition of a persistent Force, ever changing its manifestations, but unchanged in quantity throughout all past time and all future time, is that which we find alone makes possible each concrete interpretation, and at last unifies all con- crete interpretations. Spencer — First Principles. XXIX What but God? Inspiring God ! who boundless spirit all. And unremitting Energy pervades. Adjusts, sustains, and agitates the whole. Thompson — The Seasons. XXX We are obliged to regard every phenomenon as a manifesta- tion of some Power by which we are acted upon; though Omnipresence is unthinkable, yet, as experience discloses no bounds to the diffusion of phenomena, we are unable to think of limits to the presence of this Power, while the criticisms of Science teach us that this Power is Incomprehensible. Spencer — First Principles. 3a THE APISTOPHILON XXVIII As water holds within its molecule The pent-up force of steam, waiting to rule The mighty engines of a busy world, So Chaos of latent power was full. THE doubter: XXIX What Power bade this dormant force awake ? What Power a future universe bespake ? What ! Force existent in the molecule. And Life itself of which we all partake ? THE DISBELIEVER I XXX Though man has learned the tiny atom's weight, The volume of the massive earth can state, He cannot know the Source of Things per se. Nor can he comprehend the Ultimate. 33 NOTES XXXI Of Space and Time we cannot assert limitation or absence of limitation. * * * Space and Time are wholly incom- prehensible. Spencer — First Principles. XXXII For a long time after there is consciousness there is no self- consciousness. The states and changes of consciousness are not known to themselves as constituting a separate entity. * * * Spencer — Psychology. XXXIII The belief that a noise exists objectively as such, that sour- ness as tasted similarly inheres in vinegar, and so throughout, show us a border region within which subject and object arc confounded. Spencer — Psychology. 34 THE APISTOPHILON XXXI The birth of Time, the boundaries of Space, The fate of man, his final resting-place, — The misty Whither and the hazy Whence — Are idle fancies of the human race. XXXII Dame Nature paints in bright and blended hues. With skillful brush the quick-dissolving views Upon the canvas of the sentient eye, And oft the Soul delights on them to muse. XXXIII The trilling carols of the happy birds. Within the heart awake responsive chords, Oft Memory plays upon the silver strings. While Fancy puts their melody to words. 35 NOTES XXXIV But now Transfigured Realism completes the differentiation of subject and object by definitely separating that which belongs to the one from that which belongs to the other. It does not with Ideahsm say that the objects exist only as perceived; it does not abolish the line of demarkation between subject and object, by object with consciousness, but it admits the inde- pendent existence of the object as unperceived. Spencer — Psychology. XXXV Our whole universe, from the sands of the seashore to the flaming suns that throng the milky way, is built up of sights and sounds, of tastes and odors, of pleasures and pains, of sen- sations of motion and resistance either felt directly or inferred. This is no ghostly universe, but all intensely real as it exists in the intensest of realities, the human soul. FisKE — From Nature to God. XXXVI That ceaseless flutter in which the quintessence of conscious life consists is kept up by the perpetual introduction of the rela- tions of likeness and unlikeness. FisKE — From Nature to God. 36 THE APISTOPHILON XXXIV In vain the atmosphere with song was thrilled, In vain the air with fragrance sweet was filled. The grapes ungarnered dropped from tangled vines. Till man, the crown of Nature, was revealed. XXXV The picture, perfume, nectar, and the song, Tho* from without, yet to the soul belong, They enter through the open doors of Sense, The corridors of Memory to throng. XXXVI The first thing that the helpless babe must learn. Is from Himself the non-self to discern ; Experience soon his restless hand will teach The sparkling fire that tempts will surely burn. 37 NOTES XXXVII Each one of the infinitesimal changes, a little act of discrim- ination, a recognition of a unit of feeling as either like or unlike some other unit of feeling. Fiske — From Nature to God. XXXVIII So in the depth of the sours life the arrangement and re- arrangement of units go on, while on the surface the results appear from moment to moment in sensations keen or dull, in perceptions clear or vague, in judgments wise or foolish, in memories pleasant or otherwise, in sordid or lofty trains of thought, in gusts of anger or thrills of love. FisKE — From Nature to God. XXXIX The "Spirit** and "Mind** of man are but forces which are inseparably connected with the material substance of our bodies. Just as the motive force of our flesh is involved in the muscular form-element, so is the thinking force of our spirit involved in the form-element of the brain. Our spiritual forces are as much functions of this part of the body as every force is a function of a material body. Haeckel — Evolution of Man. 38 THE APISTOPHILON UNIVEHBI XXXVII The senses teach the e*er receptive brain Through many months their lessons to explain. Until grown wiser as the years roll by, It knows the bird whene'er it hears the strain. XXXVIII It knows the sweet refrain so well, that soon From Memory it makes an echoed tune, The sleeping atoms of the brain awake. Its gloomy night gives place to splendent noon. XXXIX How budding sense evolves a flowering Soul, How that the Mind is born, which holds control So long man walks the narrow span of life. If it were ever writ, then man has lost the scroll. 39 NOTES XL It is a corrupting doctrine to open a brain, and to tell us that devotion is a definite molecular change in this and that convolution of gray pulp, and that, if man is the first of living animals, he passes away after a short space like the beasts that perish. Frederick Harrison — The Soul and Future Life. XLI During sleep it is incontestable, on the premises that primi- tive man has at his disposal, that the spirit sometimes makes long journeys, for the sleeper often recollects vvrandering, hunt- ing, or making war in distant countries at a time when his companions are perfectly aware that his body has lain motion- less. GuYAU — Non-Religion of the Future. XLII Other analogies are borrowed from the physical fact of the shadow cast by the sun; one seems to see the spirit walking side by side with the body, and even changing its place while the body is motionless. GuYAU — Non-Religion of the Future. THE APISTOPHILON THE DEVOTEE : XL Say not that Love that sings its sweet refrain Is but atomic changes in the brain. That thinking man is but a wiser brute. Dare not thus-wise God's temple to profane. THE disbeliever: XLI Man often in the fancy of his dreams Through phantom forests sailed the shadow streams. Whereas his body never left its couch, It needs must be himself a double seems. XLII He sees his face as mirrored in the fount. He hears his voice reechoed by the mount. The shadow of his body never fails. Nor shall himself a shadow spirit want. NOTES XLIII Does not one fairly hear the departure of the breath ani- mating a living body, in what one calls the last gasp? * * * A sleeping body awakes, it seems to follow that a dead body will awake; that is the line of reasoning. GuYAU — Non-Religion of the Future. XLIV For primate man, to whom all these distinctions, all the gradations are impossible, there is but one thing evident, and that is the whole of nature lives; and he naturally conceives their life on the model of his own, as accompanied by self- consciousness, by an intelligence the more astonishing that it is mysterious. Guyau — Non-Religion of the Future. XLV Poetry is often philosophy in its most penetrating form. Who has not asked himself sometimes if a puissant and hidden spring of life does not circulate unknown to us in the high mountain, in the still trees, in the restless ocean, and if mute nature does not live in one long course of meditation upon themes unknown to us? Guyau — Non-Religion of the Future. THE APISTOPHILON XLIII And when at last Sleep's elder brother, Death, Lulls him to rest, the last expiring breath Shall waft that spirit to the farther land To sport again upon a spectral heath. XLIV The Perfume shows a spirit is innate Within the flower, the willing air to sate. The rustling leaves are whispers of a Soul, To primal man all things are animate. XLV The gentle winds that fan the throbbing brows A kindly spirit only could espouse. The angry storms that lash the foaming main A hostile demon only could arouse. 43 NOTES XLVI Nature is full of surprises and terrors. * * * In effect earth and sky incessantly furnish mankind with new impressions capable of stimulating the most torpid imagination, and of appealing to the whole round of human and social sensibilities: fear, respect, gratitude. GuYAU — Non-Religion of the Future. XLVII Primus in urbe Deos fecit timor. The first thing that introduced a God into the world was fear. Petronius. Fear always springs from ignorance. Emerson. XLVIII The true prayer of the dog consists in licking the hand which wounds him. * * * It is almost an example of religious submission; the sentiment which is observable in embryo in the dog is the same as that which in its complete development appears in the Psalms and the book of Job. GuYAU — Non-Religion of the Future. THE APISTOPHILON XLVI The usual rhythm of the universe Disturbs him not, but when unwonted Force, Unusual sounds and strange and frightful sights. Appall his sense, he fears a demon's curse. XLVII Then quickly gasps the short and panting breath. The quiv'ring heart quails at the thought of death. The cringing soul bows to an Unknown Dread, For frantic fear is father of man's faith. XLVIII The cringing cur that crouches 'neath the blow. Prays that his master mercy will bestow, Yet licks the hand that wields the cruel lash. For man is all the god a dog can know. 45 NOTES XLIX If animals tremble before the thunder, it is unlikely that primitive man should see nothing in it abnormal and extraor- dinary. Similarly the hurricane, which seems like an enor- mous respiration, as of a universe out of breath. Similarly with the tempest: one knows the Basque proverb, "If you want to learn to pray, go to sea.*' GuYAU — Non-Religion of the Future. The living king himself is great, how much greater must be the ancestor whom even the king fears and worships, and how infinitely greater shall be the ancestor's ancestor, whom the ancestor himself revered and worshiped? Grant Allen — Evolution of the Idea of God. LI Throughout the earlier and ruder phases of human evolu- tion this primitive conception of ancestors or dead relatives, as the chief known objects of worship, survives undiluted: and ancestor-worship remains to this day the principal religion of the Chinese and of several other peoples. Grant Allen — Evolution of the Idea of God. 46 THE APISTOPHILON XLIX When Nature thunders in her darker moods. When light' nings flash and storm winds bend the woods. When quakes the trembling Earth with craven fear. Then calls the awe-struck man upon his gods. The chief that here ruled o*er a petty tribe, Their phantom laws in ghost-land will prescribe. As sinks the sun the shadow longer grows. So distant Time doth greater power ascribe. LI And if on earth one ruled with heavy rod. Till all his tribesmen trembled at his nod. He burst the bars at death to rule the air. The erstwhile man becomes a demi-god. 47 NOTES LII This ethical element, like all other elements in the religion, is propitiatory in origin and nature. It begins with fulfillment of the wishes or commands of the dead parent, or departed chief, or traditional God. There is at first included in the ethical element no other duty than that of obedience. Spencer. LIII He maketh a God and worships it. Isaiah 44: 15. An honest God is the noblest work of man. Robert G. Ingersoll. LIV None but God can satisfy the longings of an immortal soul; that as his heart was made for Him so He only can fill it. Trench — On the Prodigal Son. 48 THE APISTOPHILON LII As they h^d groveled to him in the dust When but a mortal, now a dreadful Must, The fear-born Conscience of a craven heart, Compels their souls to pander to his lust. LIII From Ghost to God is but a narrow span, In figment of the fancy both began. As man grows wiser, nobler is his God, God's but " the shade cast by the Soul of man. THE devotee: LIV As well to quench the thirst at painted pool. Or try the hot and sweaty brow to cool In mimic shadow of a pictured wood. As satisfy with such a God the soul. 49 NOTES LV The religion of the lower races is almost as a rule one of terror and of dread. Their deities are jealous and revengeful, cruel, merciless and selfish, hateful and childish. They require to be propitiated by feasts and offerings, often even by human sacrifices. Lubbock — The Pleasures of Life. LVI The visiting on Adam's descendants through hundreds of generations, dreadful penalties for a small transgression which they did not commit, the damning of all men who do not avail themselves of an alleged mode of obtaining forgiveness, which most men have never heard of; and the effecting a reconcilia- tion by sacrificing a son who was perfectly innocent, to satisfy the assumed necessity for a propitiatory victim, are modes of action which, ascribed to a human ruler, would call forth ex- pressions of abhorrence. Spencer — Sociology. LVII This conflict with what seems an evil environment is, therefore, a necessary condition of such evolution. It is not too much to say that, without this condition, except for the necessity for struggle, man could never have thus emerged, would never have risen above the lowest stage. Le Conte — Evolution and the Problem of Evil. 50 THE APISTOPHILON THE DISBELIEVER : LV How black can be the Curse of Cult that blights ! The savage pagans practice deadly rites To soothe the anger of their Devil-God, A God that in the smell of blood delights. LVI The Christian stole the Devil-God away. And bids mankind to love and to obey A monster that did glut His cruel thirst With His Son's blood, whom He had made men slay ! Lvn The car of Progress bears a heavy load From Cult to Culture o*er a rocky road. Hard driven by the hand of heartless fate We, restive cattle, kick against the goad. SI NOTES LVIII And Moses spake unto the people saying. Arm ye men from among you for the war that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord's vengeance on Midian. jH * * And they warred against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses; and they slew every male, * * * And the children of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones. * * * Now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that has known man by lying with him. But all the women children that have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves. Numbers 31: 3, 7> 9* i7* i8. LIX And the innumerable passages in which Jehovah is said to be jealous of other gods, to be angry, to be appeased, and to repent; in which he is represented as casting off Saul because the King does not quite literally execute a command of ruthless severity, — can any one deny that the old Israelites conceived Jehovah not only in the image of man, but in that of a change- able, irritable, and occasionally violent man? Huxley — Evolution of Theology. LX There is not a criminal in an European jail, there is not a cannibal in the South Sea islands, whose indignation would not rise and overboil at the recital of that which has been done. * * * The atrocious massacre of the Bulgarians by the Turks. * 5if * Which has left behind the fierce passions that produced it, and which may spring up in another murder- ous harvest from the soil reeked with blood, and in the air tainted with every imaginable deed of crime and shame. Gladstone — The Bulgarian Massacre. 52 THE APISTOPHILON LVIII The captive maids of Midian desolate. Made orphans by a sword insatiate, Bewail the ruthless slaughter of their homes, Jehovah's horrid hecatomb of hate. LIX Where'er the bloody tribes of Israel rove. The same dark thread of Death is interwove, Jehovah is an echo of their soul, Jehovah is no more the God than Jove. LX The blood-stained Turk now wields the reeking blade, For rape and rapine makes his robber raid ; Yet bows his head each day in frequent prayers, And plies in name of God the Devil's trade. 53 NOTES LXI And when they came to the threshing-floor of Nacon, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kin- dled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error and there he died by the ark of God. II Samuel 6i6, LXII And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say. Go, number Israel andjudah. * * * And David's heart smote him after he had numbered the people. * * * Gad came to David and told him. Shall seven years of famine come unto thee or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies or that there be three days' pestilence in the land. * * * And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait; let us fall now into the hand of the Lord. * * ^ So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel. II Samuel 24:1, 10, 13, 14, 15. LXIII And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him in His heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. Genesis 6:6, 7. 54 THE APISTOPHILON LXI When Uzzah tried the shaking ark to save. Lest it be dashed against the rolling nave. The anger of Jehovah was inflamed. And Uzzah got for pay an early grave. LXII King David, moved by fierce Jehovah's ire. The number of his people to inquire. Chose by the self-same God to suffer plague. Till even He did of the slaughter tire. LXIII That He had made the world God did repent. And so devised as proper punishment To drown His creatures in a raging flood. A dying world could not His heart relent. 55 NOTES LXIV For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Exodus 20: 5. For the Lord whose name is Jealous is a jealous God. Exodus 24: 13. LXV No one is so much alone in the universe as a denier of God. With an orphaned heart, which has lost the greatest of fathers, he stands mourning by the immeasurable corpse of nature, no longer moved or sustained by the Spirit of the uni- verse, but groaning in its grave; and he mourns, until he him- self crumbles away from the dead body. RiCHTER — Flower, Fruit and Thorn. LXVI We are wont to look upon atheism with unspeakable horror and loathing. Our moral sense revolts against it no less than our intelligence; and this is because on its practical side atheism would remove Humanity from its peculiar position in the world, and make it cast its lot with the grass that withers and the beasts that perish. Fiske — Destiny of Man. 56 THE APISTOPHILON LXIV And shall the world obey the beck and nod Of such a cruel, mean, and jealous God, Worthy the scorn of every honest man ? As soon bend knee before a senseless clod ! THE DEVOTEE LXV O, ruthless cruelty of Unbelief, That creeps up like a velvet-footed thief. To steal away the jewel of man's faith. And leaves a bankrupt heart to mourn its grief. LXVI From what a height the noble spirit fell To preach the pratings of the Infidel ! To flout such mouthings in the face of God Is monstrous blasphemy inspired of Hell. 57 OF THR UNIVERSITY NOTES LXVII It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such an opinion as is unworthy of Him, for the one is unbelief, and the other is contumely, and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. Bacon — Essays on Superstition. LXVIII Note also that the loss of beloved beings, misfortunes of every sort, and irreparable infirmities all provoke an expansion of the heart toward God. GuYAU — Non- Religion of the Future. LXIX It is not without reason that faith has been compared to an anchor that has caught on the bottom and checked the vessel in its course, while the open and free ocean stretches beyond as far as the eye can reach. GuYAU — Non- Religion of the Future. 58 THE APISTOPHILON THE disbeliever: LXVII But rather he blasphemes that dares impute Unto his God so low an attribute. Ah, sad it is that even to this day The tree of Faith should bear such bitter fruit ! THE devotee: LXVII I Faith is the anchor of the human ship, When sorrow's winds the groaning yard arms strip. Else it were dashed on rocks of dark Despair. Then cling to Faith, nor let the cable slip. THE disbeliever: LXIX But Faith would check the vessel's onward way. Forever anchored in the oozing clay. When Reason fires the engine of the Soul It stems the storm and cuts the foaming spray. 59 NOTES LXX " For the young birds pipe as the old ones sing.** Heine. LXXI Search for the truth is the noblest occupation of man ; its publication a duty. Madame de Stael. LXXII All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profit- able for doctrines, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. II Timothy, 3:16. Thy word is a lamp unto my feel and a light unto my path. The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple. Psalm 119: 107, 130. 60 THE APISTOPHILON THE DOUBTER *. LXX The children to their fathers* faith do cling ! And ne'er without due cause as worthless fling Aside the teachings of the hallowed past. The young birds pipe the note the old ones sing. THE DISBELIEVER : LXXI Not he that blindly trusts the worn-out creeds, But he that follows whither Reason leads In search of Truth, has pure religion got. The one gleans wheat — the other garners weeds. THE DEVOTEE : LXXI I God did not set the human race adrift Without a chart; the Bible was His gift To guide the goodly ship mid shoals and reefs. Or else it on the sunken rocks would rift. 6i NOTES LXXIII Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life. John 5: 39. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. I CoR. 2: 14. LXXIV Thus at last out of the conception of our Bible as a collec- tion of oracles — a mass of entangling utterances fruitful in wrangling interpretations, which has given to the world long and weary ages of **hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness** — has been gradually developed through the centuries, by the labors, sacrifices, and even the martyrdom of a long succession of men of God, the conception of it as a sacred literature, * * * (a revelation not of the fall of man, but of the ascent of man), an exposition, not of temporary dogmas and observances, but of the Eternal Law of Righteousness — the one upward path for individuals and for nations. White — Warfare of Science and Theology. LXXV The Bible is an unique book, corresponding to a peculiar state of mind, and it can no more be made over or corrected than a work of Phidias or Praxiteles. In spite of its moral lapses and its frequent disaccord with the conscience of our epoch, it is a necessary complement of Christianity; it mani- fests the spirit of Christian Society, it represents the tradition of it, and attaches the beliefs of the present to those of the past. GuYAU — Non- Religion of the Future. 62 THE APISTOPHILON LXXIII The key to Life is in God's written word. The Doom of Death is in the risen Lord, None but the Eye of Faith can see the Truth, None but the Ear of Faith can hear its chord. THE doubter: LXXIV In mystic garb the Bible holds the Truth, Tho' its bald facts may seem at times uncouth; Its Oriental cast of thought and words Were suited to the World's unruly youth. THE DISBELIEVER I LXXV The Bible has indeed a well-stocked store Of marvels, myths, and wondrous legend lore ; It does contain some gems of priceless worth Gleaned from antiquity, but little more. «3 NOTES LXXVI Jesus Christ, therefore, is Lord to Christians in the same sense that Jehovah was Lord to the Hebrews. The usage re- ferred to is peculiar, no man — not even Moses or Abraham or David, nor any of the prophets or apostles — is ever thus pre- vailingly addressed or invoked as Lord. We have but one Lord, and Jesus Christ is Lord. Hodge — Systematic Theology. LXXVII Here was the greatest soul of all the sons of men, one before whom the majestic mind of Grecian sages and of Hebrew seers must veil its face. His perfect obedience made Him free. So complete was it but a single will dwelt in Him and God, and He could say, I and my Father are one. Theodore Parker — Mistakes about Jesus. LXXVIII Christianity is the most anthropomorphic belief in existence, for it is the one of all others which, after having conceived the most elevated idea of God, abases it without degrading it to the most human of human conditions. By a much more refined, much more profound paganism than the paganism of antiquity, the Christian religion has succeeded in making God the object of ardent love, without ceasing to make Him an object of respect. Guyau — Non- Religion of the Future. 64 THE APISTOPHILON THE devotee: LXXVI For us is Christ the Son of God revealed From Justice's sword, to be a perfect shield. The Man of God that knows our load of grief. For with His stripes the sins of men are healed. THE doubter: LXXVII For us Christ is the God in man revealed. Whose Divinity long had been concealed, Until the Master brought it to the Light, The human race in bonds of love to weld. the disbeliever: LXXVIII For us Christ Jesus is the Nazarene, Though lowly born yet of a manly mien. Who preached against the Jewish Pharisees, And sowed the seeds whose harvest we yet glean. 65 NOTES LXXIX St. Augustine, after thirty years of age, and other fathers, bear testimony to a sudden enduring and extraordinary change in themselves, called conversion. Now this experience has been repeated and testified to by countless millions of civilized men and women in all nations and all degrees of culture. Romanes — Thoughts on Religion. LXXX I am a Jew, * * * and I persecuted this Way unto death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. * * * And it came to pass that as I made my journey, and drew nigh unto Damascus, about noon, suddenly there shone from Heaven a great light round about me. And I fell unto the ground and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me. * * * And I said. What shall I do. Lord? Acts 22: 4, 6, 10. LXXXI Suggestion has a vast field for its effects; it can be said to be as extensive as the nervous system in general, inasmuch as all forms of nervous activity can be induced by suggestion. * * * Still more important and varied are the effects of sug- gestion within the higher psychical life, where thoughts, ideas, moods, desires, impulses, and actions can all be ruled by it, * * * so that bad habits can be suppressed and depraved char- acter can be improved and changed. BjORNSTROM — Hypnotism. 66 THE APISTOPHILON THE devotee: LXXIX The proof that Christianity can save From Sin on earth and HeJl beyond the grave Lies in this fact : That by the Grace of God, To honesty it can convert a knave. LXXX The " old man " is a persecuting Saul, The " new man " is a righteous acting Paul, For Satan rules no more that happy heart That Faith has taught upon its God to call. THE DISBELIEVER. LXXXI Conversion is suggestion just disguised. The " new man " is the " old man " hypnotized. Religion is the wand that works the spell! And through belief the Devil *s exorcised! 67 NOTES LXXXII Has every suffering, searching soul which ever gazed up into the darkness of the unknown, in hope of catching even a glimpse of a divine eye beholding all and ordering all and pity- ing all, gazed up in vain ? * * * Oh, my friends, those who believe or fancy they believe such things must be able to do so only through some peculiar confirmation of brain or heart. KiNGSLEY — Westminster Sermons. LXXXIII It is a doctrine dear to the heart of mankind, that through prayer we can hold communion with the source of all, receive revelations from the very God, and be inspired by Him. New truth, new revelation, flows into us. We make His thought our thought. Theodore Parker — Sermons. LXXXIV The belief in this intercourse with our Father rises spontane- ous in the simple heart of Childhood, and, as instinctive trust, swells outward in the new-born soul. In primitive nations of the world's history the same intuitive trust appears. In all forms of religion you find this. It meets you with the savage and civilized, in all states of progress; in all degrees of growth in religion — that of fear, of hope, and of love. Theodore Parker — Sermons. 68 THE APISTOPHILON THE DEVOTEE LXXXII Prayer is the pleading of the weary soul The load of Sin from off the heart to roll; Prayer is the plea to kindly Providence To give, to guide, to guard, and to control. THE doubter: LXXXIII The windows of the soul are open thrown By prayer, through which are cooling breezes blown To bathe the brows of heavy-burdened man, To bear the blessings wafted from God's throne. LXXXIV A grain of incense burns in ev'ry heart. And when its perfume forms no more a part Of life on earth, it swiftly mounts to Heaven, As eager arrows to the target dart. 69 NOTES LXXXV Prayer may be an almost mechanical accomplishment of the rite, the babbling of vain words, and as such it is despicable, even from the point of religion. It may be an egoistic demand, and as such is simply mean. GuYAU — Non-Religion of the Future. LXXXVI The mediaeval Lord, who, after having killed the next of kin, rears a chapel to some saint, the hermit who lacerates his chest in order to avoid the more redoubtable pangs of hell, reason from precisely the same fashion as my dog, they are endeavoring to conciliate their judge, and to be quite frank, to corrupt him, for superstition rests in a great measure upon the belief that it is possible to corrupt God. GuYAU — Non-Religion of the Future. LXXXVII It is always dangerous to believe that one possesses a power that one has not, for it hinders in some degree from knowing and exercising those one has. GuYAU — Non-Religion of the Future. 70 THE APISTOPHILON THE disbeliever: LXXXV Both time and force are lost in useless prayer As blows that beat upon the empty air, A senseless babble or a heartless rite Cannot for work or weal the soul prepare. LXXXVI And why should man in praying waste his days Or spend his breath in singing fulsome praise Must God be flattered into doing right ? He worships best that duty most obeys. LXXXVII To hold that Nature's fixed and stable power Is changed thro' prayer is wrong. When comes the hour Of Trial, man will be left in impotence And new-born Grief shall all his strength devour. 71 NOTES LXXXVIII Self-conquest is the greatest of victories. Plato. LXXXIX They that deny a God destroy man's nobility, for cer- tainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. Bacon — Essays on Atheism. XC Cares not a pin what they said or may say. Pope. 73 THE APISTOPHILON THE doubter: LXXXVIII That heart becomes an easy prey to Sin Whose morals from mere priest-born dogmas spring, When fails his creed, then falls integrity ; Better a Soul hard trained by discipline. THE devotee: LXXXIX Such words as these deserve but ridicule : " There is no God " — the motto of the fool. The boy that cons his lessons day by day Must know a Master keeps earth's greater school. THE boy: XC Give me but time to spin my whirling top, Give me a place to run, to jump, to hop. What do I care for all your useless words ? Give me but room to play and never stop! 73 NOTES XCI The keynote of the universe is joy, and every theory of destiny must harmonize with it. * * * We base our proof, however, not on mere analogy, but on the simple ground that the nature of the soul demands a proper and answering sphere, as wings demand air and fish water. MuNGER — ^The Freedom of Faith. XCII As the hart panteth after the water-brook, so panteth my soul after thee, oh God. Psalms 42:1. Thou art what I want; I am athirst for God, the living God. Jean Ingelow. XCIII What is there in man so worthy of honor and reverence as this: that he is capable of contemplating something higher than his own reason, more sublime than the whole universe; that spirit which alone is self-subsistent, from which all truth pro- ceeds, without which there is no truth. Jacobi. 74 THE APISTOPHILON THE devotee: XCI Life is a dirge that drones its doleful feet In time to heart that throbs its sorry beat. Life IS a song with scarce a note of cheer. Be there no Heaven to make this life complete. XCII Blooms all in vain for me the budding morn. The Rose of Life bears but the prickly thorn. My orphaned Spirit moans its life away If from my heart the Love of God is torn. XCIII For me the full blown day no fragrance sheds. For me the sun a sombre pall overspreads. For me the brightest day is sad and drear, If God the Father be not overhead. 75 NOTES XCIV Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father? Mark io: 29. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith. Matthew 6: 28-30. XCV Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evi- dence of things not seen. Hebrews i i : i . The just shall live by faith. Romans 1:17. XCVI I cannot believe and cannot be brought to believe, that the purpose of our creation is fulfilled by our short existence here. To me the existence of another world is a necessary supplement of this to adjust its inequalities and imbue it with moral significance. Thurlow Weed. THE APISTOPHILON XCIV And if God clothes the lilies of the field With raiment fair, and if no sparrow yield Its life but that the Father knows its fall, Shall not He then His trusting children shield? xcv I had much rather walk with God at night Than stroll alone within the brightest light. I'd rather lean on God than stand alone; 'Tis better far to walk by Faith than sight. XCVI And if this infant Life of ours is all, And if there be but Naught beyond the pall. If longings for the After-life be vain. Fate holds our spirits in a bitter thrall ! 77 NOTES XCVII The question, then, is reduced to this: Are man's highest spiritual qualities, into the production of which all this creative energy has gone, to disappear with the rest? Has all this work been done for nothing? Is it all ephemeral, all a bubble that bursts, a vision that fades? are we to regard the Creator's work as like that of a child, who builds houses out of blocks just for the pleasure of knocking them down? FisKE — Destiny of Man, XCVIII I had rather believe all the fables of the Legend and the Talmud and the Alcoran than that this universal frame is with- out a mind: and therefore God never wrought a miracle to convince atheism, because His ordinary works convinceth. It is true that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion. Bacon — Essays on Atheism. XCIX The design argument is wholly grounded on experience. Certain qualities, it is alleged, are found to be characteristic of such things as are made by an intelligent mind for a purpose. The order of nature, or some considerable parts of it, exhibit this quality in a remarkable degree. John Stuart Mill — Religion. 78 THE APISTOPHILON XCVII Fill to the brim the cup of fierce desire, For freezing man light up the craved-for fire. Then quench the flame, and dash the cup to earth, But burn not hope on such a dismal pyre ! XCVIII 'Tis strange that men could ever be such fools As not to know a Joiner by his tools ; Could spell the story of the Universe, Could learn its laws, and overlook Who rules ! XCIX More strange so keen an Eye were yet so blind As not to see in earth a thing designed ; Can Wisdom think the Mighty Worlds in Space All came by Chance as listless as the Wind ? 79 NOTES We arc entitled, from the great similarity in its effects, to infer similarity in the cause, and to believe that things which it is beyond the power of man to make, but which resemble works of man in all but power, must also have been made by Intelligence, armed with a power greater than human. John Stuart Mill — Religion. CI Seeing the snake cast its old slough and glide forth renewed, he conceives so in death, man but sheds his fleshy exuviae, while the spirit emerges regenerate. He beholds the beetle break from its filthy sepulcher and commence its summer work, and straightway he hangs a golden scarabaeus in the temples as an emblem of a future life. Alger — Doctrine of a Future life. CII Indeed, most of the analogies from our daily observation of the laws of the physical universe lead inevitably to the con- clusion that "if a man dies he does not live again.** For it is a fact within the experience of the most superficial observer that Nature constantly follows the one routine — birth, growth, maturity, decay, death. Hudson — Demonstuation of a Future Life. 80 THE APISTOPHILON The globe, that stands within the college hall, A tiny image of this earthly ball. Though but a copy, was designed by Man ; Did no one make the globe original ? THE DOUBTER : CI Nature herself a future life foretells ; In chrysalis the sleeping pupa dwells. The transformed worm will rise a butterfly; The seed when sown a greater harvest swells. THE disbeliever: CII Though worm and grub the dragon-fly precede. The new-born fly must still repeat the breed; So Nature turns the Wheel of Life around ; The germ that dies is not the garnered seed. 8x NOTES cm For verily I say unto you, till Heaven and earth shall pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Matthew 5:18. CIV Many erroneous beliefs of that character have their origin in the defective development of the understanding, such as is natural to savages and children. Witness, for example, the superstitions of ill omens which have so strong a hold on bar- barous peoples, and indeed are not extinct in the most enlight- ened communities. Maudsley — Body and Will. CV For if the universal law of gravitation is the Divine mode of the sustention of the universe, the no less universal law of evolution is the Divine process of creation. Le Conte — Evolution. 82 THE APISTOPHILON THE devotee: cm What all men everywhere have always thought Is right. The Faith for which our fathers fought, The God of Truth, the Word, Eternal Life, Cannot through juggling logic shrink to Naught. THE disbeliever: civ The childhood of mankind had childish fears And foolish fancies fit for fickle years ; But ghost and goblin, witch and demon, sprite And fairy, no one any more reveres. CV The sinuous stream that swiftly seaward glides. Hemmed in with hills that hedge its verdant sides. Along the line of least resistance flows; The law of gravitation thus provides. 83 NOTES CVI The old argument from design in Nature as given by Paley, which formerly seemed to me so conclusive, fails, now that the law of selection has been discovered. We can no longer argue that, for instance, the beautiful hinge of a bivalve shell must have been made by an intelligent being, like the hinge of a door by man. There seems to be no more design in the variability of organic beings, and in the action of natural selec- tion, than in the course which the wind blows. Darwin — Life and Letters. CVII Whatever additional factors may be added to natural selec- tion — and Darwin himself fully admitted that there might be others — the theory of an evolution process in the formation of the universe and of animate nature is established, and the old theory of direct creation is gone forever. White — Warfare of Science and Theology. CVIII • Evolution as a process is not confined to one thing, the egg, nor as a doctrine is it confined to one department of science, biology. The process pervades the whole universe, and the doctrine concerns alike every department of science — yea, every department of human thought. Le Conte — Evolution. 84 THE APISTOPHILON CVI The line of least resistance is the groove In which all things in Nature ever move. Self-acting and impelled by Force to act ; Does vibrant matter a Designer prove ? CVII Though long this crucial question was revolved, By careful study man the problem solved ; " Special creation " is a myth of Cult, All things are slowly step by step evolved. CVIII This key doth secrets of the World unlock. This Truth is stamped upon the solid rock, Urania wrote the story in the stars, None but a dolt such evidence could mock. NOTES CIX Thus identical in physical processes by which he originated — identical in the early stages of his formation — identical in the mode of his nutrition before and after birth with the ani- mals which lie immediately below him in the scale — man, if adult and perfect structure be compared to others, exhibits, as might be expected, a marvelous likeness of organization. Huxley — Man's Place in Nature. CX And it is also much more to my individual taste to be the more highly developed descendant of a primal ape ancestor, who, in the struggle for existence, had developed progressively from lower mammals, as they from still lower vertebrates, than to be the degraded descendant of Adam, God-like, but debased by the fall, who was formed from a clod of earth, and of Eve, created from a rib of man. Haeckel — rEvolution of Man. CXI It may be metaphorically said, that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the world, the slightest varia- tion; rejecting those that are bad, preserving and adding up all that are good; silently and insensibly working, whenever and wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic conditions of life. We see nothing of these slow changes in progress until the hand of time has marked the lapse of ages, and so imperfect is our view into long past geological ages, that we see only that the forms of life are now different from what they formerly were. Darwin — Origin of Species. 86 THE APISTOPHILON \B R A f? p^ OF THK UNIVERSIT" CIX Man's embryonic life the story tells. How rose the race from out primordial cells; His upward course is an epitome Of ev'ry kind of Life on earth that dwells. CX This truth of science, the Descent of man — The crown that caps great Darwin's noble plan — Proclaims a gospel born of proven fact That kills the curse that comes of Adam's ban. CXI The abler to the wall the weaker drives. The fittest tree best in the forest thrives ; In the struggle for existence this is true: " What survives is fit, what is fit survives." 87 NOTES CXII Est profecto Deus qui quae gerimus auditque et videt. There is indeed a God that hears and sees whatever we do. Plautus. CXIII For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. ECCLESIASTES 3:19, 20. CXIV Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. Luke 12: 19. Wine that maketh glad the heart of man. Psalms 104: 15. Sublime tobacco, which from East to West Cheers the tar*s labor or the Turk man's rest. Byron — The Island. THE APISTOPHILON THE devotee: CXII Not for the nonce the clock of Time was wound. Nor did the Lord fall into sleep profound And wait eternal morn, for e*er His eye Keeps vigil, and His ear hears ev'ry sound. THE disbeliever: CXIII Hedged in with barriers of frowning height. With neither source nor misty end in sight. The stream of Life flows in its winding maze To seek the self-same Sea whence came its might. CXIV Who deems it wrong to quaff the ruby wine. Who burns no incense at Nicotians shrine. Who robs his plate to feed a hungry church. Would make the song of Life a dismal whine. 89 NOTES CXV O love, young love, bound in thy rosy band. Let sage or cynic prattle as he will. These hours, and only these, redeem life's years of ill. Byron— Childc Harold. CXVI I sat down under his shadow with great delight. And his fruit was sweet to my taste. Song of Songs 2:14. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. Song of Songs 1:2. CXVII The pleasure of love is in loving. We are happier in the passion we feel than in what we inspire. Rochefoucauld — Maxims. 90 THE APISTOPHILON CXV Ah, give me Love that ever smiling gleams. That from the Dark this cheerless world redeems, Ah, may my Moon of Love forget to wane. And light me ever with its lambent beams. CXVI Love bears a fruit far sweeter than the Vine, Love brews a nectar that surpasses Wine ; But who can tell the SouFs overwhelming bliss When Vine and Love the willing heart entwine. CXVI I How cling the tendrils of their fond caress As to the lips the luscious cup they press ! Ah, I could drink and drain the vintage dry And die in arms of loving tenderness ! 91 NOTES CXVIII Love, pleasant as it is, pleases even more by the ways in which it shows itself than by itself. Rochefoucauld — Maxims. CXIX Come, come; good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used; exclaim no more against it. Shakespeare — Othello. cxx He who forsakes God for a greater liberty is like a babe lost from its mother. They who refrain from God for the sake of pleasure are like men running from the free air to seek sunlight amid shadows and darkness. They who withdraw from God that they may have wider circuit of power are like birds that forsake the forest and fly within the fowler's cage to find a larger bound and wider liberty. Beecher. THE APISTOPHILON CXVIII The wine that sparkles and the merry song, The Queen of Love that rules the happy throng. The dainty Dancers and the pleasing play — All sweets of life — are all such pleasures wrong ? CXIX And why need Virtue wear so sour a mien ? And cry — ^when Pleasures come — " Unclean, unclean " ? The sin of Pleasure is excess alone; 'Tis the abuse that doth the man demean. THE devotee: CXX The glutton, drunkard, and the libertine Such sentiments as these would gladly glean. From sensual pleasures of the Appetite Naught but the Grace of God the soul can wean. 93 NOTES CXXI Murder most foul, as in the best it is. But this most foul, strange, and unnatural. Shakespeare — Hamlet. CXXII Faith is a higher faculty than reason. Bailey — Festus. Unbelief is blind. Milton. CXXIII So, too, must die out the belief that a Power, present in innumerable worlds throughout space, and during millions of years of the earth's earlier existence needed no honoring by its inhabitants, should be seized with a craving for praise; and hav- ing created mankind, should be angry with them should they not perpetually tell him how great he is. Spencer — Sociology . 94 THE APISTOPHILON CXXI To murder Faith is Satan*s blackest art ; To force my soul from Christ its Lord to part, To wander in the waste of Unbelief Would wring the life-blood from my wretched heart. CXXII For gold of Faith what give you man instead ? The dross of so-called Science ? Better dead Than live in wicked Infidelity! How could the hunger of the soul be fed ! THE disbeliever: CXXIII And why must man a phantom God adore In willful waste his love libation pour, And spend in vain his time and wealth and lore, When burdened man has need of them much more? 95 NOTES CXXIV Superstition is a senseless fear of God. Cicero. cxxv A sentiment of submission to the decrees of Providence, who is destiny personified, has been the excuse of every form of indolence, of every cowardly adherence to custom. * * But efficiency to aid oneself demands initiative and audacity, and a spirit of revolt against an unwelcome course of things; efficiently to aid oneself one must not say, "God*s will be done,** but, "My will be done.** GuYAU — Non-Religion of the Future. CXXVI I find no evidence that seriously militates against the rule that the priest at all times and in all places is the enemy of all men. Sacerdos semper ubique et omnibus inimicus. Clifford — Ethics of Religion. 96 THE APISTOPHILON CXXIV And when the Surgeon with the skillful knife Has cut the cancer to preserve the life. Puts he aught in its place ? Theology Is such a growth with Superstition rife. cxxv Religion tends to raise a weakly breed. For self-reliance substitutes a reed. It makes the Faithful lean upon his God, And dubs it Sin to by one's self succeed. CXXVI It puts its priests upon despotic thrones. It builds its churches from hard quarried stones. Palatial prisons of man's Liberty. It swarms the hive with non-producing drones. 97 NOTES CXXVII But faith, fanatic faith, once wedded fast To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last. Thomas Moore — Lalla Rookh. Ignorance is the mother of devotion. Jeremy Taylor. CXXVIII With devotion's visage. And pious action, we do sugar o*er The devil himself. Shakespeare — Hamlet. CXXIX It was physical fear, timor, and not moral reverence, which gave being to the first gods. * * * The germ of immorality, therefore, not less than of morality, lies at the root of every reli- gion. * * * One may verify in every religion what is observed in Christianity, that the truly moral God is precisely the man- God, Jesus, whereas God, the Father, who pitilessly sacrifices his own son, is anti-human and immoral, precisely in that he is superhuman. Guyau — Non-Religion of the Future. 98 THE APISTOPHILON CXXVII Within its fane there dwells the Sycophant, It is the swamp whence oozes whining Cant, There rankly grows the weed of bigotry Whose dark shade keeps the people ignorant. CXXVIII Its Votary oft fills a craven part. However may his restive conscience smart To basely play the smooth-tongued Hypocrite, He must with iron dogmas bind his heart. CXXIX No wrong is right, no matter from what view. Nor straight is that that has been built askew. As bends the twig so grows the tree. Religion Immoral is, because it is not true. 99 NOTES CXXX The absorption of religion into morality is one with the dissolution of all positive and determinate religion, of all tradi- tional symbolism, and all dogmatism. Faith, said Heraclitus, is a sacred malady, Upd voao^. For us moderns it is no longer a sacred malady, and it is one from which all of us wish to be delivered at last. GuYAU — Non- Religion of the Future. CXXXI At some certain moment in its history it (religion) falls of its own weight with the disappearance of the pretended evi- dences on which it was resting; it does not, properly speaking, die; it ceases simply — ^becomes extinct. It will cease defi- nitely when it shall have become useless, and there is no longer obligation to replace what is no longer necessary. GuYAU — Non-Religion of the Future. CXXXII A living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Ecclesiastes 9:45. Whatsoever thy hand find to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, no device, nor knowledge in the grave, whither thou goest. Ecclesiastes 9:10. 100 THE APISTOPHILON cxxx From Rites to Reason e'er the race proceeds With measured tread unless crass Faith impedes. Morality's right conduct of the soul, Religion's but conformity to Creeds. CXXXI Religion's part on earth was to police Unruly people for the sake of peace. But since mankind no longer needs its guard, *Tis time that Reason bid its burdens cease. CXXXII *Tis natural the heart should yearn to live Again, and cling to all that Faith can give To light the dark Unknown, but all in vain. Religious Hope sips nectar from a sieve. NOTES CXXXIII The law of evolution holds of the inner world as it does of the outer world. On tracing up from its low and vague begin- ning the intelligence which becomes so marvelous in the high- est beings, we find that under whatever aspect contemplated, it presents a progressive transformation of like nature with the progressive transformation we trace in the Universe as a whole, no less than each of its parts. Spencer — Psychology. CXXXIV The human brain is an organized register of infinitely numerous experiences. * * * The effects of the most uniform and frequent of these experiences have been succes- sively bequeathed, principal and interest; and have slowly amounted to that high intelligence which lies latent in the brain of the infant — which the infant in after life exercises and per- haps strengthens and further complicates — and which with minute additions it bequeaths to future generations. Spen cer — Psychology . cxxxv Each unprejudiced and searching test applied to the action of our "free will*' shows that the latter is never really free, but is always determined by previous causal conditions, which are eventually referable either to heredity or to adaptation. Haeckel — Evolution of Man. I02 THE APISTOPHILON CXXXIII Without our will we into life were thrust, Against our wish we die and turn to dust, Ourselves, our thoughts, our hopes, beliefs, and fears Are restless children of a mighty Must. CXXXIV As we have sown, so shall we also reap. So shall our children laugh or shall they weep. We garner what our fathers long have strewn, For deeds, like seeds, a close resemblance keep. cxxxv Five sextants of the Round of life are ruled By Nature, and the sixth by Nurture *s schooled. Heredity transmits from sire to son The trends and traits that usage stronger molds. 103 NOTES CXXXVI The will is not determined by motive, but by cause — that is to say, by the sum of conditions, passive and active, on which the event follows; in other words, it has antecedents, not only the motives of which we are conscious, but the motive energies that are active below the threshold of consciousness. Maudsley — Body and Will. CXXXVII All the forces at work there can be reduced at last to growth — to the fundamental function of evolution, by which the forms of inorganic as well as organic bodies originate. Haeckel — Evolution of Man, CXXXVIII No action, whether foul or fair. Is ever done but it leaves somewhere A record, written by fingers ghostly. As a blessing or a curse. Longfellow — Christus. i04 THE APISTOPHILON CXXXVI Strive e*er so hard with e'er so patient skill To make your world to answer to your will. But little will your efforts change the Must, Relentless Fate will shape the outcome still. CXXXVII And yet that Little makes the All of gain. And breeds a better brawn and brighter brain. To-day's " I will " to-morrow is " I must," A self-wrought link in Life's predestined chain. CXXXVIII There blows no breeze but scatters far the down. That shall some distant field with verdure gown. Be harvest weed or plant, the crop is sure. And thus our deeds are ever widely sown. 105 NOTES CXXXIX No act of a man, no thing (how much less the man him- self), is extinguished when it disappears, through considerable time it still works, though done and vanished. Carlyle. io6 THE APISTOPHILON CXXXIX Then cultivate the plants and cut the weeds. And grow a crop of Worth from noble deeds. So when the Harvest of our Life is gleaned The World shall profit, for we sowed good seeds. 107 EPILOGUE An atom in immensity, a moment in eternity, a single pulse, so to speak, in the flux of life upon earth, man cannot transcend the narrow limits of his small capacity; can only reflect in knowledge more or less adequately the minute spot of space, the brief moment of time, in which he is, can know little more in the end than how little it is that he can ever know, how infinitely much he can never know. Maudsley — Body and Will. to8 Epilogue So long I parry arguments with skill. And pros and cons consider at my will. The great Enigma that e'er racks the brain Cannot be solved by man, until — until ? 109 PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY AND SONS COMPANY AT THE LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, ILL.