THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
v U>C-H, IcU^^et *u*~.*~ 
 
 the WT'&t 9 *'* 
 
 ORIGIN AND NATURE 
 OF MAN. 
 
 jr BY 
 
 S; ; B. G. McKINNEY, M.A., L.R.C.P. (Edin/ 
 
 OLIPHANT, ANDERSON, & FERRIER, 
 EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 
 
 1907. 
 
/?*7 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Our knowledge of a thing is in proportion to our 
 knowledge of its causes ; and a thing is not fully or 
 truly known until all its causes are known. 
 
 The causes are the antecedents necessarily involved 
 in the production of a thing. 
 
 Every work of design has four causes : the final 
 cause, the formal cause, the material cause, and the 
 efficient cause. If any one of these causes is lacking, 
 the thing can never come into existence. 
 
 The final cause is the purpose for which a thing is 
 designed. The formal cause is the ideal or form 
 existing in the mind before embodiment. The material 
 cause is the substance which embodies the form. The 
 efficient cause is the agency employed to perform the 
 work of construction. 
 
 Take the case of a boat. There is first the purpose 
 to construct something that will carry a man dry upon 
 water. Secondly, and perhaps simultaneously, there 
 is the mental vision or form of the thing afloat. Then 
 there is the material out of which the boat is made. 
 Lastly, there is the agency or instrument needed to 
 construct it. 
 
 The material cause, or the substance of which a 
 
 R8375809 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 thing is made, is that which first presents itself to the 
 mind of the observer, and it may even engross his 
 whole attention ; but the final cause, or the purpose, 
 is that which first presents itself to the mind of the 
 designer. Before an observer can see clearly or know 
 truly he must place himself in imagination in the 
 position of the designer, though it may seem to him 
 like putting the first last and the last first. 
 
 The final cause is absolutely definite and unchange- 
 able. The designer of a boat has the definite purpose 
 to go upon the water. The formal cause is also 
 definite and constant in essence; though, in the case 
 of the boat, it may be a vision in the imagination of 
 a tree-trunk hollowed out on one side, or a wicker 
 basket made water-tight, or a number of skins fastened 
 on a framework, or a deep trough of metal. The 
 material cause varies with accidents of time and place, 
 so that it is inconstant in its essence. The efficient 
 cause of the boat may be labour with the aid of fire, 
 or flint, or thread, or glue, or steel, according to 
 circumstances. 
 
 Physics, as Bacon has observed, inquires into material 
 and efficient causes, which are not necessarily constant : 
 and therefore physics is said to be vague and unstable 
 as to causes. Metaphysics inquires into formal and 
 final causes, which are always essentially constant ; 
 and therefore the study of metaphysics is the only 
 path to certainty and satisfaction. Material and 
 efficient causes are temporal and phenomenal in 
 essence ; formal and final causes are ultimate and 
 eternal in essence. 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 The final cause is the essential object of attention; 
 for without knowledge of it we cannot be truly said to 
 know anything. The most valuable machine can have 
 no existence for us as a machine until we know what it 
 was made for. The most powerful voltaic battery may 
 seem a mere useless accumulation of material to a man 
 who knows nothing of its purpose. Without knowledge 
 of the final cause we are in darkness. 
 
 The final cause may be taught, at least partially; 
 and the knowledge thus gained helps to reveal the 
 formal cause. The formal cause must be seen by 
 spiritual vision, or by intuitive perception, and know- 
 ledge of the final cause is a necessary antecedent and 
 accompaniment of the vision. The more complex a 
 machine the more numerous and interdependent are 
 the objects of design involved in its production. A 
 modern printing machine not only imparts information 
 by print, but combines many designs to work in 
 harmony ; so that the final purpose is accomplished 
 along with and by means of a multitude of subsidiary 
 purposes. Concentration of attention upon the machinery 
 may be so intense, and the multiplicity of wonderful 
 designs may be so interesting, that the mechanic may 
 have little time for reading, or may even be ignorant of 
 letters ; while the complexity may be so great and the 
 details so numerous that the scholar who is served by 
 the machine may not understand its construction. 
 Complete satisfaction of mind can only be obtained by 
 knowledge of all the causes ; but the mechanic who 
 attends only to the material and efficient causes, which 
 are variable and temporary in essence, cannot have the 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 consciousness of satisfaction of his higher nature which 
 is possessed by the scholar who knows nothing of the 
 machine but its final cause. 
 
 All the materials, and forces, and designs in Nature 
 enter into the causation of Man, since the influence of 
 every element upon him had to be taken into account 
 in order to provide him with power over his environ- 
 ment ; and hence man must be studied as the most 
 complex of all machines, and has been described as the 
 microcosm, or the epitome of the universe, which is 
 the macrocosm. He is in design the heir of all the 
 ages ; and to know himself even physically demands a 
 knowledge of all Nature, since everything in the universe 
 has a complex influence upon the human organism 
 within the sphere of its action. 
 
 The mere physical investigator studies the material 
 cause of man, and neglects consideration of the other 
 causes, so that he can never really know anything of 
 Man as Man. He counts his bones, examines his 
 various organs, learns the microscopic structure of 
 his tissues and their chemical composition ; but does 
 not inquire whence he comes nor why he exists. The 
 theory of evolution is based on the knowledge acquired 
 by the student of the material, and attempts to discover 
 the efficient cause without thinking of either the formal 
 or the final cause ; so that man is seen as a particle of 
 protoplasm emerging out of darkness to develop into a 
 sensitive, dissatisfied animal, engaged in a struggle for 
 permanent existence which is utterly hopeless, since he 
 invariably ends in decomposition. 
 
 Many philosophers of the East and of Greece 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 endeavoured to see the Formal Cause of man ; and 
 their efforts approached success just in proportion to 
 their knowledge and observance of the final cause. 
 The most ancient books in the world are described 
 as Sacred Books, and have been preserved throughout 
 the ages with the most extraordinary care, though 
 their custodians were often unable to give any suffi- 
 cient reason for attaching so much importance to 
 them. Why do so many intelligent men devote 
 themselves to the study of the Bible, and spend their 
 money in its circulation ? Why should they be anxious 
 to have it taught in schools ? They try to explain 
 their action by saying that it reveals the way of salva- 
 tion ; but the reply has little meaning for many 
 questioners. The importance of Sacred Books de- 
 pends upon the fact that they attempt to reveal the 
 unchangeable causes of man, and thus to provide the 
 means of obtaining the complete satisfaction of mind 
 called salvation. 
 
 The permanent and supreme importance of the Bible 
 depends upon the knowledge it imparts of the Formal 
 Cause, or, Archetypal Man, and of the final cause, or 
 the purpose for which man exists, and his relation to 
 the Creator. Thus the mind that has no book of 
 instruction but the Bible is conscious of resting upon 
 a secure and immovable foundation, and so has a sense 
 of satisfaction which cannot be otherwise obtained. 
 
 The Book of Genesis teaches that the material cause 
 of man is the dust of the earth, which is always 
 changing in position and composition ; that the effi- 
 cient cause is the Will of the Divine Mind acting 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 upon the material and physical ; that the formal cause 
 is the Archetypal Man, existing from all eternity in 
 the Imagination of the Creator, or in the Bosom of the 
 Father ; and that the final cause is to love and serve 
 the Creator. The fundamental questions of philosophy 
 are thus answered and the soul is satisfied. 
 
 Many who have the consciousness of satisfaction 
 never dream of trying to investigate the conditions 
 upon which health of mind depends, as those who 
 enjoy the best health are often least disposed to 
 analyse their food. The secret of secrets is learned 
 by exercising the will in harmony with the final cause, 
 which alone gives enlightenment ; and permanent 
 health of body and mind is the test by which we may 
 know whether a theory of the nature of man is true or 
 false. Man must be in a state of bewilderment until 
 he knows why he exists and what he ought to do ; 
 and hence the Westminster Divines, recognising the 
 essential foundation of all true religion and philosophy, 
 gave the first place in their " Shorter Catechism " to 
 the question, " What is the chief end of man ? " 
 
 Alone, in silence, Adam dwells in Space, 
 And seeks in vain the Light of Life to find; 
 
 Till, through the darkness, softly beams a Face, 
 And what seemed dead reveals a Loving Mind. 
 
 Dumb and unconscious Nature seems to rest : 
 A voice sounds sweetly in the listening ears; 
 
 The Word that dures for ever is exprest, 
 
 And Truth proclaims herself to him who hears. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface iii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ANALYSIS. 
 
 Natural Curiosity as to Origin. Puzzles of Materialism. 
 Relation of Protoplasm to Life. Attempts to form Proto- 
 plasm. Goethe on Formation of Man. What is Man ? 
 The Microscopist. Importance of the Cell. Life 
 Disembodied 34 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EVOLUTION". 
 
 Huxley on Evolution. Science and Supernatural Inter- 
 ference. Confidence of Ancients in Ruler rather than in 
 Law. Growth of Science by Elimination of supposed 
 Supernatural Action. Nebular Hypothesis of Laplace. 
 v4lerbert Spencer's View of Evolution. Conflict of 
 Evolution and Religion. Views of Huxley, Spencer, 
 and Haeckel. Lack of Definition causes Confusion 35 80 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 evolution (continued). 
 
 Are Species Permanent ? Science Depends on Absence of 
 Supernatural Interference. Work of Harvey, Newton, 
 Linnaeus, Buffon, Kant, Goethe, Laplace, Schleiden, 
 and Schwann in proving Unity of Nature. Theories of 
 Lamarck and Erasmus Darwin. Rapid Progress of 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Science. Theory of Charles Darwin. Huxley Saved 
 from Perplexity by Theory of Natural Selection. 
 Antiquity of Man. Ancient Civilisation . . 81 134 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 evolution (continued). 
 
 Theory of Grades of Humanity. Livingstone's Opinion ot 
 Savages. Does History Teach Evolution or Degradation 
 of Man ? Moral Results of Belief in Evolution. Con- 
 stancy of Species. Who are the Fittest to Survive? 
 Were the Ancients Naturally Inferior ? Ancient Belief 
 in Perfect Ideals, or Archetypal Forms . . . 135 192 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Intuition. 
 
 Vision of Formal Cause or Perfect Ideal. The Seer. The 
 Spiritual Genius. The Moral Genius or Prophet. The 
 Poet as Genius. Defects of the Genius. Heredity of 
 Genius 193 236 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 intuition (continued). 
 
 Genius Incomprehensible to mere Human Animals, and 
 supposed to be Related to Insanity. Why Genius is 
 Confounded with Insanity by the Animal Man. Goethe 
 as Teacher of the Way to Discover Archetypal Forms. 
 Intelligence Unsatisfied until Formal and Final Cause 
 are known 237 285 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE BIBLE. 
 
 All Sacred Writings Treat of the Origin and Nature of Man. 
 The Days of Creation in the Light of Science. The 
 Nature of Man. Relation of Man and Woman . 286 32 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 the bible (continued). 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Origin of Evil. Nature of Man Corrupted. Weakness of 
 Woman. Power of the Adversary. Adam as Teacher. 
 Language and Religion of Adam .... 326 379 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, THE ARCHETYPAL MAN. 
 
 Primitive Man in History. Religion in Ancient Egypt. 
 Moral Standard of Primitive Man. Hebrew Theology 
 and Religion. Hindu Recognition of the Archetypal 
 Man. Influence of Solomon. Hebrews in Babylon. 
 Worship of the Archetypal Man in Persia, India, and 
 China. Buddha and Confucius as Teachers of Primi- 
 tive Religion, which is Founded on Recognition of the 
 Archetypal Man 380 479 
 
THE 
 ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 & CHAPTER I. 
 
 ANALYSIS. 
 
 One of the peculiar endowments which proclaim 
 the impassable gulf between man and the brute creation 
 is the desire to study his own origin. He has an 
 instinctive longing to look before and after his earthly 
 existence ; and Nature never imparts an instinctive 
 longing without providing the means of gratifying it. 
 Power is given to obtain the food necessary for the 
 satisfaction of the needs of the organism. 
 
 In some reflections on the history of a soul, Olive 
 Schreiner thus emphasises the inquiry which is of 
 utmost interest to every intelligent child : " Then 
 there is remembrance of the pride when, on some- 
 one's shoulder, with our arms around their head, we 
 ride to see the little pigs, the new little pigs, with 
 their curled tails and tiny snouts where do they 
 come from ? " 
 
 All parents well know how persistent are the efforts 
 
 of the little ones to find out the origin of the baby ; 
 
 and the difficulty of answering their questions seems to 
 
 become greater as knowledge increases. The pious 
 
 O.M. B 
 
2 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 parents of former times were able to give temporary 
 rest to the inquiring spirits by replying that God 
 mysteriously sends babies to be reared for Him, and 
 that we are all His children. Little people who longed 
 to wade in deep water were thus made content to wait 
 until they had grown bigger. There was consciousness 
 of the presence of the Infinite Father, and all question- 
 ing was silenced in awe before the profoundest of 
 mysteries. 
 
 It was an advantage and a comfort to have God 
 to fall back upon. Parents and children felt more 
 blended in harmony when bowing together before the 
 Creator. Reverence for Infinite Wisdom has neces- 
 sarily an ennobling effect ; and among the pious 
 thinkers, flippant conceit found no toad-stool on which 
 to exalt itself. Philosophers as well as children were 
 delighted with an account of the origin of the baby like 
 that given by George Macdonald 
 
 " Where did you come from, baby dear ? 
 Out of the everywhere into here. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 How did they all just come to be you ? 
 God thought about me, and so I grew. 
 
 But how did you come to us, you dear ? 
 God thought about you, and so I am here." 
 
 Those who ascribe the origin of man and of all things 
 to God find it difficult to enter into the state of mind of 
 a thinker who never thinks of the Creator ; just as those 
 who have always lived in a comfortable home with 
 sympathetic relatives can hardly imagine the mental 
 solitude of an intelligent man who has been a foundling 
 
ANALYSIS. 3 
 
 reared in a workhouse without the slightest notion of 
 relationship to any living being. Such a foundling is 
 sometimes almost bewildered when thinking of his 
 origin, and feels as lonely on the earth as if he had 
 fallen out of the clouds. 
 
 The materialist is lonely and puzzled ; and he 
 becomes more and more so as his intellect is more 
 cultivated and trained to physical research without any 
 gleam of light from the perception of metaphysical 
 causes. What can he think of the origin of things ? 
 He must assume the eternal self-existence of matter 
 and force ; and the only explanation of the origin of 
 living beings he can imagine is by spontaneous com- 
 bination of chemical elements in hot and moist soil. 
 Man seems to be accounted for by supposing these 
 lower forms of life to have gone on by evolution into 
 higher and higher forms under the influence of natural 
 causes. Thus the origin of man is traced to the spon- 
 taneous combination of inorganic material ; and there 
 seems no reason why it should not be possible to set up 
 such combination by artificial means. 
 
 The religious thinker says, with Lord Kelvin, that 
 it is not in dead matter we live and move and have our 
 being, but in the creating and directing Power which 
 science compels us to accept as an article of belief; and 
 beyond all gravitational, physical, and chemical forces, 
 he recognises a vital principle. The materialist says 
 experience has never discovered a single force which is 
 not dependent upon matter, or a single form of energy 
 which is not exerted by material movement ; and he 
 assumes that because he does not know any such force 
 
 B 2 
 
4 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 or energy no one else can know, and that no such force 
 or energy can exist because he does not understand how 
 it exists. Thus the materialist is necessarily in a state 
 of intellectual confusion, and unable to perceive the 
 limits of his knowledge and the extent of his ignorance. 
 He will not believe that there is a spiritual world to be 
 known. 
 
 When man is decomposed by fire or other means, he 
 is reduced to gases and ashes ; and his origin is thus 
 apparently proved to be in dust and ashes, or in inorganic 
 matter. This seems to be his material cause. The 
 secret of the method of combining again the chemical 
 elements so as to form the man has not yet been dis- 
 covered ; and the Resurrection seems likely to remain 
 the ideal dream of the scientific imagination until the 
 Power that first produced protoplasm chooses to act in 
 the necessary manner upon the scattered atoms. The 
 efficient cause cannot be found in the laboratory. 
 
 We have to find the origin of matter and the origin 
 of protoplasm in order to learn the ultimate nature of 
 the material cause of man. 
 
 The origin of matter is generally admitted to be a 
 mystery transcending the limitations of human facul- 
 ties ; and yet the development of man's higher nature 
 depends on his efforts to comprehend the incomprehen- 
 sible, and to grasp all time and space with his finite 
 mind. As the result of attempting the impossible the 
 thinker discovers laws governing the movements of 
 matter ; and is even able to gratify his intellect with 
 some explanation of such manifestations of force as 
 heat, and light, and electricity. 
 
ANALYSIS. 5 
 
 We may imagine that every atom of matter is com- 
 posed of myriads of particles, or ions, of unimaginable 
 force, which somehow combine to form matter out of 
 force. Cultivated intelligence becomes more and more 
 difficult to satisfy, and endeavours to see by imagination 
 into regions beyond the visible ; and, in order to form 
 some explanation of the method of propagation of 
 light and transference of energy in space, creates an 
 imaginary substance, the ether, with which it fills all 
 space beyond the farthest stars, and even fills the 
 unimaginable interstices between unimaginable atoms. 
 Ether is not solid, nor liquid, nor gaseous; it has no 
 density or weight, and is not appreciable by any sense 
 or by any instrument; yet human intelligence calcu- 
 lates a theoretical weight for it, and estimates the 
 resistance it offers to comets in their apparently erratic 
 course. Ether seems to provide a kind of resting- 
 place for the mind between the atom and nothingness; 
 and it may be supposed to be the medium in which 
 force and matter meet and blend into something per- 
 ceptible by sense. Then the question remains, " What 
 caused the origin of the ether and made force begin 
 to act ? " 
 
 Life is a most perplexing mystery to the materialist. 
 He is disposed to assume that it is eternally self- 
 existent ; but no one with knowledge of science and 
 history, or with capacity for profound thought, is able 
 to believe this. Science convinces us that life must 
 have had a beginning ; so, if we are anxious to avoid 
 acknowledging the existence of the Creator, we must 
 shut our eyes to the gap between the inorganic 
 
O THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 and the organic, or try to fill up the gap with a fog of 
 words and fancy that we have made a solid bridge. 
 We may repeat the word spontaneous. 
 
 Ancient sages sought to penetrate the great mysteries 
 of existence by intuition, or by the vision of formal 
 causes ; and they sometimes concentrated attention so 
 much upon the heavens that they broke their limbs by 
 stumbling over obstacles upon the ground. The 
 modern investigator has a tendency to try to analyse 
 everything, and to seek satisfaction by burrowing in the 
 earth until he loses sight of the heavens ; and then he 
 may die in the darkness, suffocated by the products of 
 his own toil. Sages who would gain sound knowledge 
 by intuition must stand upon a stable material basis ; 
 and those who would penetrate deeply into the material 
 can do so with safety so long as they breathe the Air 
 of Heaven. Truth is one ; and all sound reasoning 
 must lead to it. Intuition must be the flower of in- 
 tellect ; and analysis depends upon great fundamental 
 principles recognised by intuition. 
 
 In the ages of faith men even of the greatest 
 intellect were content in the recognition of super- 
 natural causes ; and rested in the assurance that the 
 individual begins at birth, and that the human race 
 began by the creation of Adam and Eve out of the dust 
 of the earth, or out of atoms of matter. Now we ask 
 what was the first germ of the individual, and by what 
 method man was made out of dust. 
 
 We must find living matter somehow to begin with, 
 and then there is supposed to be evolution of the 
 original particle. Supposing force to have effected the 
 
ANALYSIS. 7 
 
 combination of atoms into living substance we have 
 the germ of all organic beings ; for we are also asked 
 to suppose that all organic beings are composed of the 
 same kind of living matter. Analysis cannot discover 
 any essential difference in composition between the 
 protoplasm of the germ of a horse and the protoplasm 
 of the germ of a dog ; and, in the name of science, the 
 materialist assumes that there is no difference when we 
 fail to perceive any. The analysis of living material 
 presents many peculiar difficulties ; and no explana- 
 tions of theorists could persuade an unsophisticated 
 gardener that there is no difference scientifically 
 between the seed of a pear and that of an apple because 
 the analyst cannot find any. 
 
 The biological chemist says that man is protoplasm ; 
 and that everything else that lives is also protoplasm. 
 The physiological analyst proves that minute cells of 
 protoplasm in countless myriads unite themselves into 
 more and more complex bodies, and apparently origi- 
 nate special functions by increasing the complexity of 
 structure, until, in the course of evolution, man himself 
 appears as the body of most complicated mechanism 
 yet produced. The physical basis of life is protoplasm ; 
 and we know nothing of life except as it is revealed by 
 or through protoplasm. 
 
 The cells of which man is composed have all been 
 derived from the same source, and pass into one 
 another by imperceptible gradations, so that no 
 definite boundary lines can be discovered ; and it is 
 assumed that there are no boundary lines when we 
 cannot discover any. Brain and bone are derived from 
 
8 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 the same substance. The complex body with its various 
 organs and tissues is protoplasm, and its origin is 
 protoplasm. Thus the study of man seems resolved 
 into the study of protoplasm. The materialist is so 
 impressed by the infinite variety of the forms it 
 assumes, and the amazing properties it exhibits, that 
 he cannot imagine anything more important than the 
 marvellous slime, so that he even confounds the thing 
 formed with the power which formed it ; and regards 
 protoplasm as the formative power of living beings. 
 
 Protoplasm may be said to be composed of matter, 
 force, and life. Even supposing the eternal self- 
 existence of matter and force, we must have a begin- 
 ning for their union into living substance. The 
 statement that life is produced by molecular groupings 
 and motions does not afford any more intellectual 
 satisfaction than is gained by supposing that the first 
 germs of life fell upon the earth in cosmic dust, which 
 had blown off remote celestial bodies in order to 
 provide the earth with population. Such theories are 
 as little scientific as the theory that the Milky Way is 
 the spawning ground of the stars. 
 
 Superficial knowledge suggests the comparison of the 
 growth of protoplasm to the growth of a crystal ; but 
 the crystal grows simply by accretions to its surface, 
 whereas in protoplasm there are vital processes taking 
 place in every cell of the substance, and also between 
 the cells, so that growth is interstitial. In the crystal 
 there is only chemical and mechanical change and 
 deposition, while in the protoplasm there is formation 
 and rejection of waste products. There is no limit to 
 
ANALYSIS. 9 
 
 the growth of a crystal so long as necessary material 
 is provided ; but life and individuality somehow govern 
 the protoplasm. When parents see a daughter of four- 
 teen more than six feet in height they are filled with 
 dread that she may become a monstrous giantess. Why 
 should she not grow to be twenty feet ? 
 
 By increasing the complexity of chemical solutions in 
 which crystals are forming we can imitate to some 
 extent the interstitial changes in the growth of pro- 
 toplasm, for we can thus set up more and more compli- 
 cated interchange of atoms or equivalents in the mass 
 of the growing crystal ; and yet we cannot truly 
 imitate the power which the protoplasm has of dif- 
 ferentiating and setting apart portions of itself to form 
 special organs which will work for the common welfare. 
 Somehow we are conscious of an unbridged gap between 
 the non-living and the living, and are compelled to 
 acknowledge that there is an essential element in pro- 
 toplasm which defies all the investigations of physical 
 and chemical science. 
 
 A living being begins to exist as a material 
 phenomenon by employing light, and heat, and the 
 other physical forces, to build up a body out of atoms 
 of matter. It would be absurd to suppose the indivi- 
 dual life to be a product of the forces which it employs. 
 For the formation of the most minute particle of pro- 
 toplasm we must have the organising and individualising 
 power of life. 
 
 When we speak of vital force as building up a body, 
 we mean that individualised life has entered into the 
 physical forces, and has combined their action for its 
 
10 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 own purpose. The life must come from outside the 
 domain of physical force. Any attempt to explain the 
 formation of a particle of protoplasm by supposing the 
 physical forces to begin by themselves to form organised 
 matter indicates views obscured and thoughts confused 
 by the consumption of words which the mind has failed 
 to digest. 
 
 To the unsophisticated it would seem evidence of 
 lunacy for anyone to propose to form a man out of 
 material atoms and compounds ; yet chemical dis- 
 coveries, and the concentration of thought upon 
 physical phenomena, have excited the hopes of labora- 
 tory workers to such a very high degree that nothing 
 seems impossible to human ingenuity, industry, and 
 skill. Many substances which a few years ago were 
 supposed to be formed exclusively by the action of 
 living organisms, and to be evidence of vital action, 
 are now manufactured on a large scale as ordinary 
 chemicals. As soon as the chemist learns the composi- 
 tion of any complex body by analysis, he at once sets 
 about the task of constructing it from its elements. If 
 protoplasm is only a complex chemical compound, it 
 may possibly be formed synthetically in the laboratory ; 
 and the mere physical observer does not think of it 
 except as a variety of albumen. To the materialist a 
 man is a complex mass of protoplasm; so that if the 
 most simple particle can be constructed in the labora- 
 tory, there is to him the possibility of forming the com- 
 plete man. Time is, no doubt, an important element in 
 evolution, but artificial assistance may hasten natural 
 processes. 
 
ANALYSIS. II 
 
 In Quain's " Anatomy," which the medical student 
 is expected to learn with unquestioning faith in the 
 importance of every word in it, we find it stated, at 
 page 179 of the second volume, that " Butschli has 
 found that if oil is rubbed up into a paste with certain 
 alkaline salts in a moist condition, and some of the 
 paste is examined in water, the latter diffuses into the 
 paste and converts it into a froth, which, under the 
 microscope, has an appearance not unlike the reticular 
 part of protoplasm. In such a froth streaming move- 
 ments may be seen, lasting for a considerable time, and 
 changes of form may occur in the mass, due partly to 
 continued diffusion through the soap-like envelopes of 
 the froth-bubbles or vacuoles, and partly to the burst- 
 ing of these bubbles when they become enlarged and 
 approach the edge of the mass. Upon these observa- 
 tions Butschli has based a theory that all protoplasm 
 has such a vacuolated froth-like structure, and the reti- 
 culum is only apparent, being the optical expression of 
 the material between the vacuoles, and that the move- 
 ments of protoplasm are produced by physical and 
 chemical processes analogous to those which cause the 
 movements within the froth of oil and salt-solution 
 which he has employed." 
 
 When a student is once persuaded that the move- 
 ments which take place in protoplasm are produced 
 merely by physical and chemical processes analogous 
 to those occurring in artificial mixtures, he naturally 
 feels that he has succeeded in getting very near to 
 the formation of protoplasm, and that if he could only 
 produce the proper albuminous mixture, the necessary 
 
12 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 physical and chemical processes might be set up by the 
 junction of the materials. The great difficulty lies in 
 the fact that the physical and chemical processes which 
 take place in protoplasm, as well as the movements 
 which produce these processes, or are produced by 
 them, are combined to form an individual, and are only 
 the effects of the cause which is commonly spoken of 
 as the life. 
 
 If man were to succeed in producing living from non- 
 living matter it would be further evidence that he is the 
 son of the Creative Mind, and that he was originally 
 endowed with the potentiality of acquiring power over 
 life and death, or of reaching the fruit of the Tree of Life. 
 
 Goethe took great interest in the attempts made, or 
 dreamed of, for the artificial construction of man. 
 Wagner does not appear to have made any progress 
 until Mephistopheles stood by his side, and Faust, as 
 representing the spiritual element in man, was asleep. 
 The materialist, by the aid of the devil, saw the spirit 
 appear in the phial, and is described as saying : 
 
 " Hope for the world dawns there ; that, having laid 
 The stuff together of which man is made, 
 The hundredfold ingredients mixing, blending, 
 (For upon mixing is the whole depending !) 
 If, then, in a retort we mull it, 
 Next to a philosophic temper dull it, 
 Distil and redistil, at leisure thin it, 
 All will come right, in silence, to a minute. 
 'Tis forming every second brings it nearer 
 And my conviction becomes stronger, clearer. 
 What Nature veils in mystery, I expect 
 Through the plain understanding to effect ; 
 
ANALYSIS. 
 
 13 
 
 What was organisation will at last 
 
 Be with the art of making crystals classed. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 It forms ! glows ! gathers ! in a moment more 
 
 The work's accomplished, never done before 
 
 Broach an unfolded project, men suspect it, 
 
 Scoff at it, as a madman's dream reject it ; 
 
 We, in our turn, may laugh when the event 
 
 Is placed beyond the reach of accident. 
 
 Think of the thinker able to produce 
 
 A brain to think with, fit for instant use ! 
 
 The glass rings low, the charming power that lives 
 
 Within it makes the music that it gives. 
 
 It dims ! it brightens ! it will shape itself. 
 
 And see ! a graceful dazzling little elf. 
 
 He lives ! he moves ! spruce manikin of fire, 
 
 What more can we ? what more can earth desire ? 
 
 Mystery is no longer mystery. 
 
 Listen ! a sound ! a voice ! and soon will be 
 
 Intelligible words addressed to me." 
 
 The description given by Goethe of the formation of 
 man in the laboratory cannot be accepted as scientific 
 in tone or in accuracy of detail ; and how could the 
 student of the material be expected to recognise the 
 necessity for the assistance or presence of the devil ? 
 
 It was only as a momentary vision that Wagner was 
 able to see the Homunculus, or spiritual essence of man, 
 for the little elf refused to remain in the society of his 
 materialistic parent, and went away with Faust, leaving 
 the experimenter to sorrow over his inability to under- 
 stand or enjoy the pleasures of the spiritually-minded. 
 All his labours only brought disappointment and grief to 
 the man who sought the secret of life in the laboratory; 
 
14 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 and the most self-confident and famous teacher, whose 
 view is limited by the material, and who is left to 
 solitary reflection in old age, must sink into miserable 
 pessimism, since no ray of hope can illuminate the den 
 of dust and cobwebs in which he tries to live. 
 
 Any theory of the nature and origin of man is neces- 
 sarily false if its result is to render a man unable to 
 rejoice in mental health under natural conditions ; and 
 death is one of the natural conditions imposed upon us. 
 A really sane old man ought to feel a healthy awe- 
 inspiring pleasure in contemplating death, when age 
 and experience have taught him that it is a normal 
 stage in human existence ; but the materialist is not at 
 all in harmony with his environment when enfeebled by 
 age, and must say with Faust, 
 
 " Alas ! in vain poor I together scraped 
 All that man's science till this day hath shown ; 
 And all that his imagination shaped, 
 I in ambition's dreams have made my own. 
 A weary task it was a sullen strife ; 
 And now I sit me down, helpless, alone ; 
 No new power comes no strength no spring of life ; 
 Nor by a hair's breadth higher is my height, 
 Far far as ever from the Infinite ! " 
 
 Man is a conscious being, inhabiting a body by means 
 of which he can think, feel, and move, and possessed of 
 capacity and desire for a knowledge of causation, so 
 that he is impelled to seek to discover his origin and 
 his destiny. Consciousness assures him that every 
 effect has a cause, and that every cause must have an 
 effect in view, He, therefore, investigates the causes 
 
ANALYSIS. 15 
 
 of the phenomena which are manifested by the various 
 organs of his body, and endeavours to learn the effects 
 which each part is calculated to produce by its action. 
 Thus he may attain to a knowledge of the functional 
 elements of his body, and their relations to one another 
 and to his welfare ; yet he is not content until he has 
 discovered what properties he possessed in his most 
 primitive condition, and how he became possessed of 
 these properties nor, indeed, until he has discovered 
 the Cause of causes. 
 
 By pushing our inquiries further and further back 
 in his life's history, we find that in spite of his present 
 complicated organs and imposing appearance, man was 
 originally only a cell of protoplasm, so minute as to be 
 almost invisible on the point of a needle except by the 
 aid of a magnifying glass. When stripped of the 
 accessories provided by time, even the greatest philo- 
 sopher is seen to begin life on an equality with common 
 men, so far as it is in the power of man to discern ; 
 and whether an individual shall become a king and a 
 saint, or shall lead the life of a criminal and die as a 
 justly execrated malefactor, may depend upon the use 
 he makes of the opportunities presented to him, or of 
 the physical and mental food which he receives. The 
 common egg of a bee is said to be developed into a queen 
 by modifications of the food and the environment. 
 
 Man in his primitive state, as known to the physio- 
 logist, is not only devoid of hair and teeth, but has 
 positively no brain, no nerves, no muscles, and no sense 
 organs. Yet he is potentially all there. We are quite 
 sure that the man is in the ovum, and that, if permitted 
 
l6 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 to live under natural conditions, he will grow and 
 develop like the creation of a magician, will construct 
 for himself a most marvellous dwelling out of the 
 commonest chemical atoms, and will even use the 
 component parts of his dwelling as organs for the 
 display of his peculiar powers. He will form a brain 
 to think with, and nerves to feel with, and muscles to 
 move with, and sense organs to acquire information 
 with. That Homunculus is in his little transparent 
 delicate cell is beyond a doubt, though how he got into 
 it is an insoluble puzzle. The most accomplished 
 experimenter cannot construct the cell in his laboratory, 
 or cause the man to enter into the matter, even with 
 the aid of Mephistopheles ; and the moment the fragile 
 tenement is broken, the potentially conscious individual 
 disappears. 
 
 The microscopist tells us that man in his primitive 
 state does not differ in any essential respect from the 
 elephant, or the shark, or the frog, or the worm ; so 
 that, from the microscopic point of view, a man is not 
 speaking metaphorically when he describes himself as a 
 mere worm. The microscopist, however, over-estimates 
 his own ability and the power of his instrument when 
 he concludes that because he cannot see the man in 
 the ovum there is no man present. Peculiar powers of 
 vision may be needed to see the real man, and the con- 
 trivances which seemed calculated to assist the vision 
 may only cause obscurity. It is only the clothing that 
 the microscopist can ever see, and the man has not had 
 time to dress. 
 
 It is necessary to define accurately the meaning of 
 
ANALYSIS. 17 
 
 the terms we use, in order to have a clear understanding 
 of the subject we discuss ; and the accurate definition 
 depends upon the clearness of the idea defined. What 
 is it we wish to analyse ? 
 
 Much misunderstanding arises from lack of a clear 
 idea of what we mean when we speak of a man. When 
 we speak of a big man, or a small man, we are thinking 
 of masses of protoplasm, but not so when we speak of 
 an educated man or an ignorant man. Attempts to 
 define man as an animal that cooks, or as an animal 
 that laughs, or as an animal that prays, can only 
 obscure an idea already involved in fog. If we say 
 that a man is the sum of all the tissues and organs that 
 he possesses, the very statement that he possesses them 
 proves that we regard him as something superior to his 
 organs and tissues. When we become indignant with 
 a man for neglecting to cultivate his intellect, or to 
 exercise his will, we prove that we do not believe that 
 the intellect or the will is the man. Some writers say 
 that man is only a highly evolved animal ; but they 
 at once proceed to prove that they do not believe what 
 they say; for an animal is regarded as limited by its 
 body and its environment, and it is not believed to take 
 any interest in its ancestry or its destiny, whereas men 
 are called on to study history and the laws of heredity. 
 
 Man is said to be an animal possessed of the power 
 of reflecting, or of reduplicating his sensations ; but the 
 mere process of reflection implies a setting up of the 
 animal nature for examination as if by an outside 
 observer. What is the man who makes the examina- 
 tion of the phenomena exhibited by the animal ? 
 
 o.m. c 
 
l8 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Philosophers speak of the man as the Ego ; and this 
 is a very appropriate name when we are speaking of the 
 adult man who can declare his consciousness of his 
 superior existence, and can truly say, " I am." This is 
 a return to the old Hebrew condition when men recog- 
 nised themselves to be gods, though they had to die 
 like the princes of the people who lived as animals. 
 It is surprising how few men can truly say, " I am." 
 The term Ego is not an appropriate name for the man 
 as he exists concealed in the ovum, nor even as he 
 exists in infancy ; for it implies a declaration of self- 
 consciousness. 
 
 The man is often designated by philosophers as the 
 Self; but this term is ambiguous, and it implies the 
 power of making a distinction between one individual 
 and another, so that it is not appropriate for the infantile 
 man who has had no experience. A man never knows 
 himself until he sets up his body and mind for his own 
 inspection and criticism, and then he learns something 
 of his ignorance of himself. This is called the process 
 of introspection, though it is really an inspection from 
 without. Language is not sufficiently precise and 
 explicit, since our ideas are not clear and definite ; and 
 consequently we say that a man must get out of himself 
 to know himself, though when he is beside himself he 
 does not know himself and yet he cannot recognise 
 the self until he ceases to be selfish. Thus we are com- 
 pelled to come to the conclusion that a man in the true 
 sense of the word is one who has abandoned his life in 
 order to find it ; for the word life, like the word self, is 
 used in different senses. 
 
ANALYSIS. ig 
 
 The term that is least open to objection, and that is, 
 in fact, the only appropriate one for application to the 
 vital essence of man at all stages of his existence, is 
 spirit. The spirit seems originally to have meant the 
 human being that breathes, and there is no stage of 
 man's development that we can imagine in which 
 breathing is not vital to existence ; yet we try to 
 express the idea that the spirit is anterior to the 
 physical breathing. The most minute particle of the 
 protoplasm cannot exist without breathing, and must 
 die if deprived of all air, though the breathing may 
 not be perceptible by any means of investigation 
 that we possess. Man exists for the study of the 
 physiologist as soon as he inhabits a particle of matter 
 capable of breathing, and dies whenever he loses the 
 power of breathing. In all stages of his existence he 
 is a spirit, but he cannot manifest himself except by 
 breathing. 
 
 The wonderful ability and insight of the ancient 
 Hebrews is always manifest in their language, and for 
 the foundation of all our philosophy we have to fall 
 back upon them, or upon their intellectual descendants, 
 the Greeks. The living being is the breather. Man is 
 a spirit, and in order to live must breathe without 
 ceasing. Yet he must have been living before he began 
 to breathe. It was life made him breathe. How did he 
 get the life ? 
 
 We may reasonably suppose that the primitive man 
 is at least as rich in physical endowments as the primi- 
 tive frog or worm, and therefore we may study the 
 primitive state of any animal to supplement our 
 
 C 2 
 
20 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 knowledge of the properties of the human ovum. 
 Indeed, the whole question of the origin of man, from 
 the evolutionist standpoint, seems reduced to the dis- 
 covery of the origin of the simplest particle of protoplasm 
 imaginable. Man, the spirit, inhabits a definite particle 
 of protoplasm. Reduced to his simplest condition, 
 man appears to be composed simply of protoplasm 
 that is, of life and the material of life. Which is the 
 life and which the material of life is the riddle of 
 modern science which not even a human sphinx could 
 solve. There can be no protoplasm without life, and 
 we know nothing of life except as it is manifested by 
 protoplasm. 
 
 In our search for the origin of man we are not satisfied 
 to take the ovum as the starting-point, for we find that 
 the ovum contains a nucleus which differs in some 
 respects from the protoplasm surrounding it ; and it is 
 not unreasonable to suppose that all the peculiarities of 
 the individual are potentially concentrated in the 
 nucleus, and that the surrounding protoplasm is mere 
 nutrient material for the man. As microscopes increase 
 in power, our notions of the physiological unit, or the 
 biophor, undergo corresponding modification, and what 
 was regarded as homogeneous and structureless is 
 regarded as a complex body containing elements pos- 
 sessed of different properties. Some suppose that the 
 fluid in the nucleus contains the vital juice ; others say 
 that the really important part is that which can be 
 stained by particular dyes while the remainder of the 
 substance remains colourless. Familiarity soon breeds 
 contempt, and when we have become familiar with 
 
ANALYSIS. 21 
 
 chromatic filaments and nucleoli within the nucleus we 
 long for something more elementary. 
 
 The particle of protoplasm into which we have traced 
 the man is somewhat like albumen in appearance and 
 chemical composition, though its chemical composition 
 is not fixed or definite. It is made up of atoms of 
 oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and a few other 
 elements ; but its peculiar characteristic is that these 
 atoms of matter are somehow united into a complex 
 moving mass by life. 
 
 In order to satisfy our thirst for a knowledge of 
 causation we may imagine that man begins his career 
 by the union of one million atoms, which thus form the 
 ultimate organic unit. An eminent teacher may even 
 give special names to the units and to a number of their 
 imaginary combinations ; and some generations of 
 students may waste much time and energy in learning 
 the meanings attached to the words by their manu- 
 facturer. Then another more eminent teacher may 
 say that the organic unit is really made up of ten atoms, 
 and is much more simple than a molecule of albumen, 
 and he may manufacture a new set of words. The 
 efforts of investigators to discover the essential portion 
 of the man, and their destructive criticism of one 
 another, bring them down to the fact that no proto- 
 plasm can exist without water, and as the calcium is 
 not the man, nor is the phosphorus, nor the sulphur, 
 nor the nitrogen, nor the carbon, we agree to believe 
 that the one thing the man cannot do without is a 
 molecule of water ; so that all the phenomena of life 
 may be said to find their ultimate expression in the 
 
22 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 behaviour of an atom of oxygen and two atoms of 
 hydrogen. Now we triumphantly proceed to weigh the 
 man, and in order to do so accurately we dry him 
 thoroughly when he all evaporates. 
 
 Thus we have gone on removing atom after atom of 
 the material as not essential to the man, until, in our 
 search for his origin, we have stripped him quite naked. 
 In trying to discover the essential part of the body of 
 the man we have disembodied him. The man has had no 
 chance of escape, and in our pursuit we have got out 
 into Space where there is no more matter to be dealt 
 with no more bolts or bars. Like Faust in his search 
 for the Mothers, we have found that in order to 
 know the real origin of man we must emancipate 
 ourselves from the material. Again we find ourselves 
 compelled to become dead to the world in order to find 
 life. 
 
 The attempt to find the primitive man, or the organic 
 unit, or the biophor, in the material of the protoplasm, 
 is philosophically absurd ; for the man is a definite 
 entity possessed of continuity in his identity through 
 all his changes of form, whereas the material of the 
 protoplasm is composed of atoms which are incessantly 
 varying in number and arrangement. The man 
 manipulates the atoms by means of the life in order 
 to clothe and exercise himself; but no sooner has he 
 got possession of an atom than he keeps changing it 
 from one place to another until finally casting it aside 
 altogether. If any atom or combination of atoms were 
 to fancy itself the essential bearer of life, it could not 
 retain the fancy for two seconds, since the man would 
 
ANALYSIS. 23 
 
 in that time have thrown it out or torn it asunder, or 
 otherwise demonstrated its inferiority. 
 
 We started with the certain knowledge that the 
 primitive man is to be found in a particle of proto- 
 plasm, and that protoplasm is composed of matter and 
 life. We have proved that the man is not in the 
 matter of the protoplasm, and therefore he must be in 
 the life. 
 
 The materialist here says that he cannot go any 
 further, since he is not conscious of any knowledge but 
 that gained and tested by the physical senses. He is 
 of the earth, earthy. He appeals to his microscope 
 and his test-tube ; describes and photographs the tissues 
 and cells ; points out how one structure differs from 
 another in the phenomena it exhibits under the influence 
 of various reagents ; weighs most carefully each product 
 of metabolism, and tries to estimate the number of 
 atoms required to form a molecule of each proximate 
 principle ; dissects, disintegrates, decomposes, and 
 concludes with the announcement that man is composed 
 of atoms of matter. All the study of a lifetime, with 
 the aid of all the appliances of modern science, results 
 in the discovery that man is made of the dust of the 
 earth and of nothing else. 
 
 " Thus, he who seeks to learn, or gives 
 
 Description of a thing that lives, 
 
 Begins by murdering, to dissect 
 
 The lifeless parts he may inspect. 
 
 The limbs are there beneath his knife, 
 
 And all but that which gave them life ! 
 
 Alas ! the spirit hath withdrawn ! 
 
 That which informed the mass is gone 1 
 
24 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 They scrutinise it when it ceases 
 To be itself, and count its pieces- 
 Finger and feel them, and call this 
 Experiment analysis." 
 
 The materialist presents a very interesting object of 
 study as he watches the search for the origin of the 
 body which is to him the whole man. He maintains a 
 state of apparent indifference until the primitive cell or 
 ovum is reached, but this he seizes with marked mani- 
 festations of fear and anxiety. He tries to calm himself 
 by asserting that the life must be merely an extremely 
 minute atom, or some kind of a material physiological 
 unit containing the promise and the potency of every 
 form of life in itself. As atom after atom of the ovum 
 is laid aside, the cold sweat becomes visible on his fore- 
 head with the dread that the atoms, behind which he 
 sits concealed, may be cast into the void and he himself 
 exposed naked to the light. He longs for mountains 
 to fall upon him that he may be hidden from the terrible 
 analysis. Anxiety gives place for a time to mingled 
 rage and terror, and the goaded expression of the 
 animal eye passes into the painfully fixed expression of 
 impotent despair, until, when the last molecule is 
 reached, he clings to the atoms composing it with all 
 the frenzied agony of a lost soul endeavouring to find 
 shelter ; and, as the atoms are at last torn from his 
 grasp, he plunges headlong, with a shriek of anguish, 
 into the mystery of Space, which to him is the Nothing 
 of Absolute Night. 
 
 The modern physiologist does not profess to be a 
 materialist. He studies biology, or the phenomena 
 
ANALYSIS. 25 
 
 exhibited by life ; and thus bears witness to the superior 
 importance of the life ; for that which can manipulate 
 physical and chemical processes must be greater than 
 the processes it uses. Yet the biologist sometimes 
 resembles the Parisian who is very miserable when 
 compelled to spend a Sunday in Scotland, and to whom 
 existence seems intolerable without something material 
 to occupy his attention. He cannot understand that 
 the greatest delight and most supreme satisfaction 
 enjoyed by the highest intelligence is derived from 
 communing with the Invisible. Life is something 
 coming from outside the material, and yet containing 
 all the properties that can ever be exhibited by the 
 man. 
 
 The civilised man does not feel comfortable without 
 clothing, unless he is satisfied that he is in perfect 
 harmony with his environment; and so, when the 
 biologist is not in harmony with his environment, he is 
 anxious to avoid being on too familiar terms with the 
 Invisible, and therefore seeks refuge in a covering of 
 words. He says it is quite true that life is very 
 mysterious, but that mystery is something that science 
 must ignore not face. Instead of admitting that the 
 life comes from outside the matter, he tries to surround 
 both the matter and the life by a fog, and says that 
 there must be an organic unit, or a biophor, or a plasti- 
 dule, or a micella, or a pangene, or some other minute 
 accumulation of molecules possessed of the primary 
 vital forces and capable of producing a complete man. 
 As soon as one word is proved to be an empty shell a 
 new one is produced, and the student is compelled to 
 
26 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 waste his time and stupefy his mind by trying to learn 
 each succession of indefinite or ambiguous terms, and to 
 discover ideas in them. 
 
 The cell threatens to become a biological Tower of 
 Babel, around which the students of all nations will be 
 confounded if they persist in attempting to construct a 
 man out of clay. The changes that can be seen taking 
 place in the cell and its nucleus during the process of 
 development are very interesting, as are the various 
 attitudes which a man assumes when at work con- 
 structing a building, but which afford us no assistance 
 in determining the origin of the man, or the design of 
 the building ; and yet the terms employed to describe 
 the changes that occur in the appearance of the nucleus 
 become more ponderous and high-sounding as the 
 phenomena observed become more obscure and indefi- 
 nite. When we study earnestly the descriptions given 
 of the division and multiplication of cells and nuclei as 
 revealing the beginning of the development of the 
 human ovum, we find that the writers lose sight of the 
 living being altogether, and devote all their energies to 
 minute examination of his dwelling-place. In discussing 
 the biology of man the man himself is ignored, and 
 attention is concentrated upon the folds and wrinkles 
 which appear in his dress as he moves and grows. In 
 response to our inquiries as to the manner in which 
 man originates we have our vision obscured and our 
 intellect stupefied by a lecture that seems to tell us that 
 the spongioplasm and the hyaloplasm of the protoplasm 
 rock the cradle of the nucleus by their spontaneous 
 amoeboid movements, until the sleeping man within the 
 
ANALYSIS. 27 
 
 nucleus hears the cry of karyokinesis, and awakes to an 
 appreciation of all the wonderful mitoses he has to 
 undergo, and, in his struggle for development, employs, 
 his achromatic spindle to arrange the chromosomes, so 
 as to form the monaster preparatory to the metakinesis, 
 in which the chromosomes are drawn along the fibres 
 of the achromatic spindle into the two separate groups 
 of the dyaster in order to prepare the way for the 
 formation of the daughter nuclei and the production of 
 the complete man by the anabolism and katabolism of 
 the keimplasma. 
 
 In his eagerness to learn the meaning of the novel 
 and uncouth words required to give a faint conception 
 of the changes that take place in the appearance of the 
 microscopic cell, the student may well be excused for 
 fancying that the most profound knowledge of life is 
 somehow contained in the bewildering and ever- varying 
 terminology, and that life itself has somehow been 
 captured and comprehended, and the origin of man 
 discovered. The very use of the word ontogeny in this 
 connection is misleading, as it implies a study of the 
 beginning of being, whereas all that is attempted is a 
 description of the different appearances observed in a 
 cell during a process of development. As the number 
 of atoms between him and Space becomes fewer and 
 fewer, the materialist tries to keep up the appearance 
 of substantiality by surrounding them with gauze 
 puffed out by bladders of air. All is designed to blind 
 us to the plain fact that the primitive man, or the 
 essence containing all the possibilities of the man, is 
 not in any atom, or in any collection of molecules. 
 
28 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Having laid aside as non-essential every atom of the 
 ovum, we feel emancipated, and move freely in the 
 domain of Force, where the scientific philosopher 
 studies the phenomena of the ether. It may now be 
 said that the primitive man is an individualised portion 
 of vital force ; and here we are again immersed in the 
 meshes of ambiguous words. 
 
 What is vital force ? It is simply the combination 
 of the physical forces employed by life. Vital force is 
 not light, nor electricity, nor heat, nor magnetism, nor 
 gravitation, nor attraction, nor chemical action, but it 
 is the combination of them all under the control of a 
 Design. We may say that vital force is the shuttle 
 employed by the life, or the Earth-Spirit, to utilise the 
 physical forces in the work of weaving the atoms of 
 matter into organisms in obedience to the design of 
 the Spirit. Vital force is force as employed by life ; 
 but it is not life. There can be no comparison or 
 analogy between the physical forces, or any combina- 
 tion of them, and the power which directs and employs 
 them. 
 
 Having traced man into the life, we must now isolate 
 the life from the agents with which it works. The 
 chemical action, the heat, the light, and all the other 
 forces, must be cast aside as mere food which the life 
 utilises, until we at last find the life with no covering 
 except the ether, which seems something quite beyond 
 the reach of earthly influence, since it is independent of 
 the action of gravity, and has no limitations of space. 
 This is the nearest approach the physical investigator 
 can make to the Absolute ; and still we must say that 
 
ANALYSIS. 29 
 
 the ether is not the life, but only something utilised by 
 the life. There is nothing left for us but to get beyond 
 the ether, and contemplate the life as existing in 
 Space. The primitive man is there, containing in 
 some concentrated manner the essences of all the 
 powers and peculiarities which he can ever exhibit by 
 means of a body. 
 
 To describe the man at the stage of existence to 
 which we have now followed him, we must simply 
 say that he is a living spirit, or a spirit clothed with 
 life. 
 
 Owing to the limitations of our faculties, and the 
 consequent imperfections of our language, we fail to 
 distinguish between the spirit and the life which it 
 employs to act upon the physical forces. We know 
 nothing of spirit except as it is revealed by life, and we 
 know nothing of life except as it is revealed by its 
 influence upon physical forces. We fail even to define 
 accurately what we mean by life, and when we speak 
 of the human life we really mean the spirit, or the man 
 himself. Life is the special primary agent of the 
 intelligent being. When we speak of life as building 
 up a plant, we mean a mere force devoid of intelligence, 
 though acting in obedience to design. This life is 
 quite different from the life which a man loses by 
 abandoning himself to a life of vice ; and the life he 
 leads is not the vital force he squanders. 
 
 The great awe-inspiring and transfiguring moment 
 for every man is that in which he consciously looks 
 for the first time upon the life as something that is 
 obtained from without the material which forms his 
 
30 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 temporary dwelling-place. He then recognises himself 
 as a spirit, distinct from the mere human animal ; and 
 from that moment he is a Hebrew, to whom the body 
 becomes as the cells of the battery to an electrician 
 only temporary apparatus for working with. Before 
 that moment the hours, and even the minutes, may 
 have seemed tedious, and the days to pass so slowly as 
 to demand some entertaining expedients for " killing 
 time"; but after that moment the months and years 
 are recognised as brief and transient portions of a 
 swiftly-vanishing scene of which the end is visible. 
 The universe is looked down on from outside, and 
 Time is recognised as a minute portion of Eternity. 
 The apparently endless plain of man as a worm is 
 seen by man as a spirit to be only a little globe. 
 
 Most men have an intense dread of facing the 
 disembodied life problem, and they adopt utterly 
 unfounded hypotheses in their efforts to ignore the 
 spirit as the primitive man. In order to avoid facing 
 the truth, words are employed ambiguously, and are 
 even artificially manufactured without the existence of 
 any definite ideas to inhabit them. Life is spoken of 
 as mere vital force, and vital force is said to be the 
 innate energy of protoplasm ; so that a jugglery with 
 indefinite sounds is kept up in order to foster the 
 delusion that life may be nothing more than a kind 
 of chemical action, and that it is therefore unscientific 
 for a man to think of himself as a spirit. Scientific 
 investigation and sound reasoning lead inevitably to 
 the conclusion that the primitive man is a spirit, or 
 an immaterial individual entity, transcendental to all 
 
ANALYSIS. 31 
 
 matter and to all physical forces, and possessing the 
 potentiality of all the faculties and properties exhibited 
 by the adult man. 
 
 Language is the revelation of thought by symbol 
 of the invisible by the visible of the spiritual by the 
 material. The man has now retreated into a region 
 where the invisible has not yet clothed itself with the 
 visible, where the material has not yet come into 
 existence. We are out into the world of spirits. 
 Description by symbol is impossible, since there are 
 no physical phenomena to provide symbols. Yet it is 
 here that man realises himself and his origin. Here the 
 true Brahman finds his Highest Self in the Universal 
 Spirit. Here he learns the value of Yoga, and enjoys 
 the ecstasy of spiritual vision by rising superior to the 
 dominion of the senses. 
 
 An intellectual materialist may plod on for years 
 indifferent to the discomforts and uncertainties of the 
 muddy plain upon which he exists ; but, in the course 
 of time, the influence of superior minds tends to make 
 him feel himself something better than a brute, and 
 he may long to escape from his sordid surroundings. 
 Sometimes the accounts of spiritual enjoyments, in 
 which he is unable to participate, fill him with envy 
 and hatred ; so that, in his foolish spite, he tries to 
 convince himself and his companions that the spiritual 
 world has no existence, and that those who speak of a 
 higher life do not know what they say. Then we have 
 the strange spectacle of a lecturer whose aim is not to 
 impart knowledge, but to persuade others that what he 
 does not perceive does not exist. Those who enjoy 
 
32 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 spiritual sense are liable to forget that they possess 
 nothing but what they have received, and, instead of 
 regarding the ignorant declaimer with pity and com- 
 passion, they may look upon him with contemptuous 
 scorn, and say : 
 
 " Poor devil ! the mind of man 
 Man's seeking, struggling spirit hopes aspirings 
 Infinite are they things to be conceived 
 By natures such as thou art ? " 
 
 While occupied with the gratification of his senses 
 and the enjoyment derived from the exercise of his 
 physical and mental powers a man may have little 
 time or inclination to meditate on his nature and 
 origin, or on the purpose of his existence. When 
 the hopes of youth have proved illusive, and the 
 pleasures of the world transitory and unsatisfying, 
 what remains to make life pleasant or even tolerable ? 
 As friend after friend is buried in the earth to make 
 room for coming generations, the certainty of death 
 and the horrors of the grave are realised, and man 
 seems to exist only to suffer and be slaughtered. 
 Those who now are young and strong must soon be 
 old and feeble, and must be trampled underfoot by 
 the advancing army ever moving out of darkness 
 onward to destruction. Is the earth only a scene of 
 brutal struggle in which the strong must crush and 
 prey upon the weak in order that the fittest may 
 survive ? Why do intelligent beings perpetuate the 
 cruel tragedy ? When want, and fear, and care steal 
 upon the old decrepit human animal who has rejected 
 
ANALYSIS. 33 
 
 the revelations of the idealist, his hopeless writhings 
 present one of the most piteous spectacles imaginable. 
 
 " Restless nevermore partaking 
 Calm of sleep or joy of waking : 
 All that others do resenting ; 
 All that he hath done repenting ; 
 All he hath not done regretting ; 
 All he ought to do forgetting ; 
 Lingering, leaving, longing, loathing ; 
 Ripe for Hell and good for nothing." 
 
 The mere physical investigator always looks down- 
 wards. He removes one brick after another from the 
 edifice in order to find out the origin and meaning of 
 it ; and when he lifts the last brick he sees nothing but 
 earth, and can think of no reason why the bricks were 
 ever placed together. The Temple of the human body 
 has been formed with a purpose, and is infinitely 
 superior to any building made by man. Every brick 
 is a living cell intended to assist in revealing the 
 nature of the spirit inhabiting the body ; and the whole 
 universe is the field provided for exercise and enjoy- 
 ment. The animal man can never discover what was 
 his primeval condition, or why he exists he can never 
 know formal or final causes. The genius sees the 
 Archetypal Man, and the object of his creation, when 
 he says : 
 
 " Our wills are ours we know not how ; 
 Our wills are ours to make them Thine." 
 
 The absolute certainty of knowledge which is con- 
 ferred by intuition, or by the perception of the spirit, 
 cannot be explained by any language. The material 
 
 O.M. D 
 
34 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 body which provides the means of revealing the 
 individual is felt to be at the same time a prison which 
 limits and conceals him. The conversation of Prospero 
 with Ariel cannot be made intelligible to those around 
 who remain immersed in the material, and the magician 
 cannot introduce his invisible companion to his friends. 
 Spirit speaks to spirit, deep calls to deep, with mutual 
 understanding, and with the certainty of a common 
 origin and a common destiny, though language known 
 to the materialist is impossible. 
 
 " We are spirits clad in veils : 
 Man by man was never seen ; 
 All our deep communing fails 
 To remove the shadowy screen." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 EVOLUTION. 
 
 By analysis we have endeavoured to discover the 
 material cause of man, or the essential elements or 
 constituents from which he has originated ; and we 
 have found that he is a spirit, inherent in a mind 
 clothed with a material body, which fits so accurately 
 that it reveals him while concealing him. By the 
 evolution theory an attempt is made to learn the 
 efficient cause, or the means by which he has been 
 produced from the material cause. 
 
 Here an objection meets us. The material cause 
 was found to be a spirit, so that the evolution theory 
 does not go far enough back to be of any value in an 
 inquiry into the origin and nature of man ; for the 
 theory only deals with the force and matter employed 
 by the spirit to build a dwelling-place for itself, by 
 means of which to communicate with the world around. 
 Matter may be the manifestation of an infinite number 
 of associated points of force ; and force is the manifesta- 
 tion of spirit. The spirit of man can control both 
 matter and force, and must be anterior to them. 
 
 In his lectures on " Man's Place in Nature," Huxley 
 defines his idea of evolution in the following terms : 
 " In view of the intimate relations between man and 
 the rest of the living world, and between the forces 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 exerted by the latter and all other forces, I can see no 
 excuse for doubting that all are co-ordinated terms of 
 Nature's great progression from the formless to the 
 formed from the inorganic to the organic from blind 
 force to conscious intellect and will." 
 
 The search for origins is of primary importance, though 
 it may not be successful. The joy of pursuit is ever- 
 lasting. We have found that the material cause is not 
 material but spiritual ; and now evolution refuses to go 
 beyond formless matter and blind force. Still, the 
 evolution theory is of great importance in giving some 
 rational idea of the method by which all things were 
 produced out of force and matter, and by which the 
 spirit became possessed of its body. Orderly and har- 
 monious progression is pointed out in the work of 
 creation, and a comprehensive view of the universe as 
 the embodiment of law is revealed. 
 
 The Creator was formerly supposed to have taken 
 and to take sudden incomprehensible leaps in the pro- 
 duction of things, and to act in an arbitrary, erratic 
 manner, so that it was often thought impious to attempt 
 to seek rational explanation of extraordinary phenomena, 
 or to attempt to form a continuous chain of natural 
 causation. The hypothesis of evolution shows the 
 Creator as a patient Teacher, slowly working out intri- 
 cate designs in such a way that pupils will find infinite 
 delight in tracing and imitating them. When there are 
 chasms which cannot be fathomed by human powers 
 ladders are placed across, with the steps so close 
 together that one is scarcely conscious of danger or 
 difficulty in crossing. 
 
EVOLUTION. 37 
 
 There is a philosophical necessity compelling us to 
 believe in the unity and continuity of Nature, and to 
 try to account for everything by causes that are natural, 
 or obedient to fixed laws. This belief may be said to 
 be both the origin and the supreme aim of science ; for 
 it is because he believes in the unity of Nature that 
 man has confidence in his search for natural causes ; 
 and the great aim of science is to prove that the 
 instinctive belief is rational. The history of belief in 
 the unity of Nature may be compared to the course of 
 a stream encountering many obstacles, so that it is 
 sometimes broken up and almost disappears. At first 
 there is a placid well in the centre of a meadow, because 
 the child saw all as under the control of the Heaven- 
 Father ; but when men become impressed with the 
 notion of the overpowering influence of a multitude of 
 hostile or capricious demons they almost lose the power 
 of forming the conception of a physical unity of creation. 
 Now, the stream has passed beyond the region of 
 swamps and cataracts into a placid river of assured 
 conviction, and is almost merged in the sea of know- 
 ledge where faith is swallowed up in sight. 
 
 For thousands of years men of greatest intellect were 
 content to regard each plant and animal as a distinct 
 creation without necessary connection or relation 
 anatomically with any other, and to look upon such 
 forces as light, and electricity, and chemical action as 
 phenomena outside the sphere of human comprehen- 
 sion or inquiry. This may seem opposed to the state- 
 ment that belief in the unity of Nature is instinctive ; 
 and yet Moses, and Plato, and Shakespeare were 
 
38 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 as satisfied as we are that the universe is a unit, 
 or a united whole. The ancients invented for us such 
 words as cosmos and universe, and were less con- 
 founded than many modern thinkers by the mysteries 
 around them. Where the evolutionist sees all living 
 things united by a hypothesis of common descent, the 
 primitive teacher saw all thoroughly united and blended 
 by a common authority ; and where we suppose a law 
 of gravitation, of the nature of which we know nothing, 
 as necessary to maintain the planets in their orbits, the 
 ancients regarded all the universe as kept in harmonious 
 movement and merged into one by the Supreme Being. 
 In every age men live by faith ; and faith in a Divine 
 Governor is more satis r ying to the reason than faith in 
 blind force. 
 
 Science may be said to be the discovery and classi- 
 fication of causes, or the substitution of natural for 
 supernatural causation, so as to enable man to control 
 effects and to foresee consequences. Reason strives to 
 prove that all things form a connected and harmonious 
 whole, and to bring all phenomena under the reign of 
 law, even though imagination has to be called upon to 
 construct bridges. A fact that seems unconnected with 
 other facts excites intense interest merely by its apparent 
 isolation, and men centre round it with curiosity as 
 eagerly as ants congregate around a strange body sud- 
 denly appearing within their domain. The ants cannot 
 rest until they have satisfied themselves that the new 
 object is similar in nature to those with which they 
 are familiar ; and men cannot rest until they have dis- 
 covered relations between the new fact and other facts. 
 
EVOLUTION. 39 
 
 If there are no relations apparent the thinker postulates 
 or imagines some, and forms a hypothesis or theory to 
 stop the gap in his knowledge of causation, as he may try 
 to appease hunger by chewing straw when he cannot 
 obtain corn. The recognition of a phenomenon or a 
 truth implies the swallowing of it by the mind ; and 
 then we are unable to avoid endeavouring to digest and 
 assimilate it, so as to combine the new food for thought 
 with other concepts and elements of acquired knowledge, 
 and make it part of the organised intelligence. Miracles 
 are phenomena that seem permanently isolated. 
 
 The student of science must ignore the possibility of 
 supernatural interference in his search for causes. 
 There must be no doubt in the mind of the chemist 
 that the same elements will always produce the same 
 compounds under the same conditions ; and the archi- 
 tect must feel confident that no unknown incomprehen- 
 sible agency will change the strength and properties 
 of the materials employed in building. If there were 
 capricious changes science and art would be impossible ; 
 and if there w T ere arbitrary interferences by powers 
 quite beyond human control or comprehension, render- 
 ing calculation and reason of no avail in foreseeing 
 consequences, the mind would be paralysed by uncer- 
 tainty and terror. Reason seeks for laws and causes 
 that can be somehow controlled and utilised, or that 
 may give rest to the imagination by the suggestion of 
 stability and permanence in the order of phenomena. 
 
 It is now often assumed that mankind proceeded 
 from knowledge of the natural to speculation on the 
 supernatural, whereas the material is instinctively 
 
40 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 regarded by primitive man as the agent or the dwell- 
 ing-place of the spiritual, and every phenomenon as 
 possibly governed by supernatural causes. A normal 
 child with mind developed so as to feel at home when 
 communing with Nature sees everything as bathed in 
 a spiritual atmosphere, and revels in the contemplation 
 of the miraculous. There is no need of teaching or 
 schools to induce men to believe in the supernatural ; 
 for the difficulty is to control the imagination so as to 
 prevent enslavement by fancies of witches, and demons, 
 and charms. Since the beginning of history and to 
 the present moment the teachers of religion and 
 science have been struggling against the tendency to 
 superstition. 
 
 Ancient philosophers meditated upon theological and 
 metaphysical problems and theories, while treating the 
 physical environment as of secondary importance ; and 
 men were so much occupied with the study of the 
 mysteries of the spirit that they did not succeed in 
 constructing fanners to winnow their corn or pumps to 
 facilitate the watering of their cattle. The Creator 
 was believed to be always interfering with causes, so 
 that it seemed useless to attempt independent action in 
 any direction where unfamiliar processes might be at 
 work to overwhelm the intruder. This engrossment of 
 the mind by the mysteries of the spirit world prevented 
 the great nations of the past from subjugating the earth 
 by mechanical inventions ; and even now makes the 
 East the easy prey of enemies who attend to the prac- 
 tical application of knowledge, and the improvement of 
 engines of warfare. The lines of Arnold may be taken 
 
EVOLUTION. 41 
 
 as summing up the attitude of many generations of most 
 intelligent scholars and profound thinkers towards the 
 march of physical science : 
 
 " The East bowed down before the blast 
 In patient, deep disdain ; 
 She let the legions thunder past, 
 Then plunged in thought again." 
 
 To illustrate the manner in which scientific know- 
 ledge was acquired, let us suppose the case of a primi- 
 tive observer seeing an inanimate object mysteriously 
 move. The movement is ascribed to supernatural 
 agency, or is said to be miraculous. On further 
 investigation a lever is discovered by means of which 
 the observer can himself produce the movement of the 
 object. Then it is supposed that some supernatural 
 agent acts upon the lever which is said to be the cause 
 of the movement. Another lever is discovered acting 
 on the first, and supernatural agency seems more 
 remote, while man's confidence in his own power 
 increases. Lever after lever is discovered, and each 
 lever is found to have branches projecting in all direc- 
 tions ; so that the discoverer is able to produce more 
 and more extensive movements from greater and greater 
 distances, and to predict with certainty the result of 
 pre-arranged combinations of applied force. Next it is 
 found that definite systems of levers can be worked 
 without disturbing other systems, so that an automatic 
 method seems to exist for throwing out of action those 
 which are not wanted. This control of systems may 
 be ascribed to supernatural agency, until imagination 
 
42 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 comes to the aid of science, and a theory is invented 
 which accounts for the control of the systems by sup- 
 posing the existence of systems of secondary levers 
 acting upon the primary in positions where it is impos- 
 sible to see them. There are now so many known 
 facts to occupy the mind that supernatural agency is 
 almost forgotten ; and as generalisation becomes wider 
 and wider, the aim of science may be said to be the 
 elimination of supernatural agency by the discovery 
 of law. 
 
 Confidence in the supernatural is a necessary condi- 
 tion of scientific research, though as research progresses 
 confidence in law becomes established. The man of 
 faith precedes and supports the man of science. A lost 
 child, or a man anxious for his safety, cares nothing for 
 the beauty, or the history, or the value of the things 
 around him. Before it will even pull its doll asunder 
 in order to discover the nature of the stuffing the child 
 must have the security and peace of home ; and tribes 
 always in danger of attack have little inclination to 
 form philosophical theories, and have not leisure and 
 opportunity to accumulate knowledge by handing down 
 their thoughts and experiences to posterity. The first 
 scientific observer must have had confidence in his 
 environment, so as to become superior to the fear 
 which is the parent of superstition. 
 
 Superstition is the paralysis of reason by the foolish 
 contemplation of mystery ; and it appeals to super- 
 natural causation in proportion to its ignorance of 
 science and the degree of the paralysis. Reason 
 strives to account for all phenomena by natural laws 
 
EVOLUTION. 43 
 
 governing cause and effect. When a savage sees for 
 the first time a sudden eruption of fire and smoke 
 accompanied by a noise like thunder, and evidently 
 controlled and guided by an unseen hand so as to 
 ensure the destruction of objects far distant, he is 
 likely to fancy himself in the presence of a supernatural 
 cause until he discovers the cannon and the gunners ; 
 and multitudes of the civilised believe in supernatural 
 causation when an earthquake threatens the stability of 
 the ground beneath them. As confidence is gained by 
 familiarity, or by increase of knowledge, experiments 
 are made with explosives, and earthquakes are studied 
 as interesting links in the chain of natural causation. 
 The Creator is forgotten. 
 
 Primitive thinkers naturally devoted special attention 
 to the wonders of the heavens, to which the modern 
 city-dweller seldom looks. The rising and setting of 
 the sun were alone sufficiently striking as miracles to 
 prevent any imagination from dreaming of explaining, 
 or understanding, or imitating them. Problems of 
 infinite profundity were suggested by the varying posi- 
 tions and appearances of the moon and stars, by the 
 alternations of day and night, and by the seasons. 
 There were no fixed laws known, or scientific theories 
 of the universe, by which explorers might support and 
 shelter themselves in their journeyings through the 
 haunting mysteries of existence. 
 
 Superstition would have prevented all progress by 
 causing fear of imaginary enemies. The intelligent 
 man of faith saw something greater than a law of 
 gravitation behind the ever-circling universe ; for he 
 
44 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 recognised the Creator, infinite in power and wisdom ; 
 uttering warnings by the thunder, and sending messen- 
 gers by the lightning, yet providing food for all, and 
 giving the refreshing delight of rest and sleep ; setting 
 bounds to the storm and flood, and promising that 
 harvest should always follow seed-time. There seemed 
 no need to think of natural laws such as that of gravita- 
 tion. Confidence in a person is more satisfying in many 
 respects than confidence in machinery ; and passen- 
 gers who have perfect faith in the captain of a ship 
 do not care very much whether the motive power is 
 steam or electricity, or whether there are screws or 
 paddles. 
 
 Knowledge of the motions of the heavenly bodies, 
 and of the changes in their relative positions, was more 
 general in the early ages than in modern times ; since 
 a pastoral life compelled men to be much alone with 
 Nature, there were no books to occupy the attention, 
 and it was frequently necessary to rely upon the stars 
 as guides. Interest in astronomy was intensified by the 
 mysterious manner in which some of the brilliant bodies 
 gradually approached until apparently in touch and 
 then slowly receded from each other. Every change 
 was noted with an accuracy of observation and a reten- 
 tiveness of memory only possible through whole-hearted 
 devotion to the study. 
 
 All controlled movement being seen as the revela- 
 tion of mind, the simplest means for the primitive 
 investigator to attempt to satisfy his reason was by the 
 personification of phenomena. The Hebrew, or the man 
 who tried to see from the point of view of the Creator, 
 
EVOLUTION. 45 
 
 was not much concerned with material or efficient 
 causes, which seemed of quite secondary importance 
 compared with the object of existence and the relation 
 of man to his Maker ; but the children of the Hebrew, 
 having no apparent need to think out the primary 
 problems for themselves, demanded some explanation 
 to satisfy reason without faith, and found some comfort 
 in ascribing phenomena not understood to the action of 
 imaginary living creatures. The Almighty alone had 
 control of these supposed beings, as we might say that 
 the Almighty alone has control of natural laws. Thus 
 the writer of the Book of Job represents the Supreme 
 Being as asking : " Canst thou bind the cluster of the 
 Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion ? Canst thou lead 
 forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or canst thou guide 
 the Bear with her train ? " The Creator had control, 
 so that a law of gravitation was of secondary import- 
 ance, being merely the means employed to hold together 
 the apparatus whose wonders engrossed attention. 
 
 No one in ancient times thought of assigning a 
 natural cause for the motion of the planets, or supposed 
 them bound by fixed laws similar to those which govern 
 the fall of an apple to the ground, and the flight of an 
 arrow in the air. Men had the simplicity and wonder 
 of children united with the meditative wisdom of age, 
 and felt the necessity of connecting even the stars with 
 ordinary events. To the Hebrews, who thought first 
 of final and formal causes, it seemed enough to regard 
 heavenly bodies, like all others, as agents and servants 
 of the Creator ; but those who depended greatly on 
 reason invested the stars with marvellous powers, and 
 
46 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 supposed that by their movements they reveal or 
 determine the destinies of men. Apparent isolation 
 of the phenomena was a cause of mental disquiet, and 
 some theory had to be formed to relieve the intellectual 
 indigestion due to the existence of detached units of 
 thought ; or we may say that when the passengers failed 
 to trust the captain they had to comfort themselves by 
 ascribing miraculous powers to the machinery. 
 
 There are many events in the life of the individual, 
 and in the history of the nation, which cannot be 
 explained by reason; and yet the mind is dissatisfied 
 until the effect is ascribed to some cause. The Hebrew, 
 by faith, saw the decrees of the Supreme Ruler in all 
 things. Those who had not faith sought refuge behind 
 such words as accident, and chance, and fate ; some 
 exhausted themselves in the invention of theories, and 
 then abandoned hope of knowledge ; many became the 
 victims of credulity and superstition, and regarded the 
 stars as the ultimate governors of life and death. 
 Astrology was due to the efforts of imperfect reason 
 to bring the stars and fortuitous events within the 
 sphere of the idea of the universe as a unity under 
 a continuous law of causation. There was no definite 
 ground of fact upon which the astrologer could base his 
 calculations, yet he proceeded to predict wars, and 
 revolutions, and marriages and deaths, and events of 
 every kind, from the position of the stars. There is no 
 decline in superstition ; for while the ancients looked 
 with fear and reverence on the stars, the modern 
 Englishman without faith has fear and reverence for 
 a horseshoe. 
 
EVOLUTION. 47 
 
 For the ordinary affairs of life, and even for meta- 
 physics, and theology, and ethics, and religion, it is 
 sufficient to believe that the earth is flat, and is at 
 rest, while the sun and stars move round it. The great 
 kings of humanity were not hindered in their thinking 
 by such belief; and few of the most successful men of 
 the present day ever think of the sun as stationary. 
 That the sun should rise and set seems as much a 
 matter of course as that a tree should blossom ; and 
 only a visionary sees anything wonderful in the 
 blossoming of a tree, or in the production of grapes 
 by an old stump of wood. When men are intent on 
 discovering easy methods of securing food or wealth, or 
 sensual pleasure, they have not leisure or inclination to 
 look at the stars. 
 
 Observers of the heavens believed for many centuries 
 that some of the planets revolved round the sun, and 
 with the sun round the earth ; but as each succeeding 
 generation was able to stand upon the shoulders of its 
 predecessor, the field of vision became wider, and it was 
 found that some facts could not be explained on the 
 supposition that the earth is the centre round which 
 the sun revolves, while others did not accord with the 
 notion that the earth is flat. Shepherds could think of 
 the earth as a vast plain until they began to discuss 
 why the shadow cast by it upon the moon during an 
 eclipse is always that of a sphere ; or until, residing on 
 the border of a lake or sea, they tried to explain why a 
 receding vessel is not visible as far as vision can extend 
 on a flat surface, but disappears as if going over the 
 crest of a hill. At last the present theory of the solar 
 
48 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 system was adopted, and by it facts were made intel- 
 ligible and brought under the reign of law that before 
 seemed inexplicable. The scientific nature of the 
 theory was further established by its practical appli- 
 cation, since it enables navigators to traverse unknown 
 seas with safety and confidence, and gives astronomers 
 the power of predicting with certainty the position in 
 the heavens which will be occupied by planets and 
 comets at stated times. Thus dread of supernatural 
 interference in causation was further removed, and a 
 more comprehensive theory of a law-governed universe 
 was formed. 
 
 Reason must always seek a resting-place which it can 
 never find except by confidence in the Governor. Each 
 new department of Nature penetrated reveals a number 
 of mysterious passages tempting the investigator to 
 press on to more and more wonderful discoveries, 
 since provision for the exercise of imagination must 
 be incapable of exhaustion. It may be said of the 
 scientist : 
 
 " And he wandered away and away, 
 With Nature, the dear old nurse, 
 Who sang to him night and day 
 The rhymes of the universe. 
 
 u And whenever the way seemed long, 
 Or his heart began to fail, 
 She would sing a more wonderful song, 
 Or tell a more marvellous tale." 
 
 Having become familiar with the solar system, 
 weighed and measured the planets, learned the limits 
 within which they can move, calculated the periods 
 
EVOLUTION. 49 
 
 needed for their axial rotation and for their revolution 
 round the sun, and constructed models to illustrate their 
 relations to one another, there was a tendency to rest 
 content with the knowledge acquired, and to look back 
 with a feeling of triumph on the progress made. Old 
 minds may lose enthusiasm and stop to reflect upon the 
 difficulties overcome, or they may realise the littleness 
 of all achievement as they become more conscious of 
 the infinite mystery beyond ; but to the young the past 
 is only a stepping-stone to something higher. The wall 
 around may be for a time sufficiently high to paralyse 
 the will, so that no attempt to penetrate beyond is 
 planned, until a sanguine imagination rises above all 
 barriers and the impossible seems easy. The Milky 
 Way is at present little more than a name for mystery, 
 and fixed stars have no known causal relations with the 
 solar system ; but comets come and go as if beckoning 
 the astronomer to follow them into outer space, while 
 the spectroscope gives encouragement by providing 
 evidence that the most remote bodies are formed of 
 matter similar to that of which the earth is composed. 
 
 Progress in science is due to observation, experiment, 
 and calculation, aided by the action of healthy imagina- 
 tion which gathers up the many into one. Newton 
 made a great advance in unifying the conception of 
 Nature by establishing the law of gravitation, which 
 provided a rational explanation of the movements of all 
 masses of matter, and showed that even the planets are 
 free from interference by arbitrary supernatural influ- 
 ence, and that all bodies are connected in their move- 
 ments so as to be mutually dependent. We are so 
 
 O.M. E 
 
50 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 accustomed to think of all things as controlled by this 
 natural law that we can hardly imagine how our 
 ancestors in their ignorance of it were able to avoid 
 a condition of mental anarchy when they saw such 
 bodies as the sun and planets apparently threatening to 
 collide with one another. 
 
 So long as the heavenly bodies are thought of as 
 independent existences beyond our means of investiga- 
 tion, there is no basis upon which to form a hypothesis 
 regarding their origin and nature, and there is no rest 
 for the mind except as the result of faith in the Supreme 
 Governor; but when it is proved that they can be 
 weighed and measured, and that they move as if all 
 controlled by one cause and obedient to one law, and 
 that the law controlling them is utilised as a servant by 
 every man in his simplest work, their power of inspiring 
 awe diminishes, and they are studied as common 
 objects. Man becomes more and more convinced that 
 he is himself the centre of the universe, with all things 
 subservient to him. He is the microcosm capable of 
 comprehending the macrocosm in the embrace of his 
 imagination ; and he seeks to learn the origin and 
 mode of growth of worlds. 
 
 The universe was formerly supposed to have sprung 
 into existence as the result of sudden creative acts 
 having no relation to natural or fixed laws. Science 
 forbids the assumption of an unknown cause when 
 known causes may possibly suffice to provide an 
 explanation ; and spiritual agencies cannot be con- 
 sidered by anyone engaged in extending the conception 
 of the universe as governed by physical laws. There is 
 
EVOLUTION. 51 
 
 not satisfaction lor the reason in the statement that the 
 Creator launched all the heavenly bodies into space, 
 and gave them their motions, and preserves them in 
 their appointed places. Science inquires the means 
 adopted, or the efficient cause. 
 
 Laplace attempted to give a rational account of the 
 method which the Creator may be supposed to have 
 pursued in forming the solar system by employing 
 material and forces comprehensible by man. According 
 to this theory all the matter forming the solar system 
 was at first in the form of a vast sphere of incandescent 
 gas, or in some nebulous state supposed to be homo- 
 geneous. This luminous mass extended as far as the 
 utmost limits reached by the remotest planets ; yet the 
 Creator had to mark a boundary for it, and to set it 
 glowing on its axis. As the mass rotated it gradually 
 cooled and contracted, and the central parts became 
 more dense than the superficial. Great volumes of the 
 less condensed superficial layers fell off, or were left 
 behind ; and these naturally continued to rotate and 
 also to revolve round the parent globe, while they 
 contracted and perhaps gave off satellites. 
 
 Laplace believed that the Creator intends man to 
 investigate and to understand the laws and principles 
 employed in the work of creation ; and he tried to 
 point out how we might comprehend the method 01 
 forming the solar system with the planets rotating on 
 their axes and revolving round the sun. Thus, 
 while apparently approaching nearer and nearer 
 to the Cause of causes, the domain of natural law is 
 seen to be extending, and we have gone back to 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 primitive nebulosity to find a place where we can 
 suppose supernatural interference to be possible 
 because we have fancied ourselves beyond the reign of 
 law. This is where the evolution theory tries to begin. 
 Postulating the existence of matter and force, and that 
 the matter has been made sufficiently hot, and has had 
 the proper limits assigned to it, and has been set 
 rotating with sufficient velocity, and has been arranged 
 to throw off each mass at the proper time, and has been 
 taught how to produce chemical elements and to 
 arrange them correctly, and has been endowed with an 
 invincible desire to progress from the simple to the 
 complex, and has intellect and will in the highest 
 imaginable degree, the materialistic evolutionist finds 
 no difficulty in believing that the primitive nebulosity 
 produced all things under the influence of the persistence 
 of force. 
 
 The nebular theory can be made the basis for other 
 theories designed to prove the possibility of an ever- 
 lasting cycle of existence, or a kind of perpetual 
 motion. Some planets have become cold, while others 
 are still very hot ; some are circling comparatively 
 near the original mass, while others have to move in 
 very much wider circles ; some are larger than others, 
 and some much more dense than others. Thus there 
 is great variety ; and much of the variety we may 
 suppose to be due to age and wear and tear. A large 
 body will contain more heat, and will require longer for 
 cooling, than a small one ; and those which have to 
 move with inconceivable rapidity through vast orbits 
 must be affected differently from those moving much 
 
EVOLUTION. 53 
 
 more slowly in smaller orbits. When a world has 
 exhausted itself, or lost all its heat, there may be some 
 provision for dashing it against another with sufficient 
 violence to reduce them both again to the nebular 
 state, to again go through the processes of birth, 
 growth, development, decay, and death. We can 
 fancy that the dissipated material re-forms and develops 
 into new worlds, and so on for ever and ever. Thus 
 poor humanity on the brink of the grave endeavours to 
 avoid the necessity of contemplating death, and dreams 
 of renewed youth. 
 
 The elimination of possible opportunity for super- 
 natural causation seemed to proceed with ever-increasing 
 vigour and completeness during the past century. 
 Primitive thinkers were awe-struck in the presence of a 
 lofty mountain, and felt that only an Omnipotent 
 Being could have formed the inaccessible peak and 
 horrible precipice before which the mightiest potentate 
 was insignificant and all the boasting of warriors 
 silenced. Familiarity with mountains never diminishes 
 reverential admiration, but rather intensifies it ; so 
 that the enthusiast longs to climb again and again the 
 heights upon which he has suffered hunger, and thirst, 
 and fatigue, and pain, all ministering to a blissful joy 
 derived from gratification of the sense of the beautiful 
 and the sublime. Hebrew poets in ecstasy called upon 
 mountains and hills to praise Jehovah ; and Greeks, 
 who had lost much of the pure spiritual knowledge of 
 the Hebrews, were still sufficiently sensitive to lofty 
 emotion to fancy that the most appropriate earthly seat 
 for the Supreme must be the summit of Olympus. 
 
54 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 How could anyone think of mountains as the product 
 of natural causation ? 
 
 Evidence of the miraculous construction of moun- 
 tains seemed confirmed by the discovery of marine 
 shells upon the high peaks, and of fossil fish in the 
 centre of rocks ; while supernatural agency was alone 
 deemed capable of accounting for the presence of trunks 
 of trees in coal buried far beneath the hills. As the 
 various kinds of rock were examined it was seen that 
 some existed in regular layers for long distances, 
 and then were abruptly upturned and pierced through 
 by masses of another formation ; as if the Creator 
 had determined to go on for a time in a definite 
 simple manner and then had changed all by a sudden 
 catastrophe. Yet such inexplicable phenomena pro- 
 duced no confusion or bewilderment in the mind of the 
 Hebrew. Could not the Heaven-Father do as He 
 pleased ? 
 
 Geologists proved that all the phenomena exhibited 
 in the formation of mountains and of the crust of the 
 earth may be explained by natural causes working 
 through long periods of time. The deposit in seas and 
 lakes and at the mouths of rivers must often have 
 become of great thickness in the course of thousands or 
 millions of years, and remains of plants and animals 
 were inevitably embedded in the deposits ; while con- 
 traction of the earth in the process of cooling must 
 have caused depressions and upheavals in the surface 
 crust. Even volcanoes and earthquakes, which were 
 believed to be unquestionable manifestations of super- 
 natural power, are viewed by the geologist as physical 
 
EVOLUTION. 55 
 
 agencies for forming mountains and valleys, so as to 
 separate the waters and prepare dry land for the 
 habitation and use of man. Earthquakes provide us 
 with a possible cause of violent upheaval of stratified 
 rocks ; and volcanoes, which seem so marvellous when 
 regarded as isolated phenomena, become mere routine 
 agents of natural causation when we wish to explain 
 how rocks are melted together and then propelled 
 through superincumbent strata. When we ask how 
 the volcano and the earthquake are caused there is no 
 difficulty in providing answers. Explosive gases may 
 readily be formed by the great heat in the centre of the 
 earth, or water finding its way into the interior must 
 be suddenly vaporised; and displacement of great 
 volumes of compressed gas may readily burst through 
 the limiting crust. The mining engineer now discusses 
 geological formations and the effects of volcanic action 
 without a thought of supernatural agency. 
 
 During the nineteenth century efforts to abolish 
 mystery by the discovery of causes became specially 
 persistent and energetic in all departments of thought. 
 Laws and principles which before had been treated 
 as isolated subjects of study were found capable of 
 wonderful combinations. It was as if one observer 
 had previously confined his attention to the means of 
 producing steam, and another to the consideration of 
 the properties of metals, and another to the improve- 
 ment of methods for carving letters on wood, while now 
 all combined to make and utilise printing machines. 
 Physical science made rapid strides in generalisation, 
 and seemed to leave no lurking-place for supernatural 
 
56 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 agents, whether as engaged in the formation of rocks, 
 or in the preservation of fossils, or in the production of 
 earthquakes, or even in the construction of worlds. 
 Research was at the same time made into the secret 
 forces by means of which it was possible to perform 
 apparently marvellous feats of sorcery and witchcraft. 
 Alchemists had sought for the means of transmuting 
 baser metals into gold, and for a universal solvent ; 
 they were exceedingly optimistic in their conception of 
 man's dominion, and in his capacity to learn the laws 
 which govern the properties of matter, while they 
 even believed in the existence of an elixir which could 
 enable them to resist the decay due to age. Chemistry 
 proved that a substance which has apparently vanished 
 into nothing on being consumed has only changed its 
 form, and that destruction by burning, or by any other 
 method of decomposition, is not annihilation, but is 
 due to mere rearrangement of atoms. 
 
 Matter was found to be indestructible and force to be 
 persistent. The total amount of energy in any system 
 of bodies remains the same, however it may be trans- 
 formed by the action of one part of the system upon 
 another; force which seems to be lost is only trans- 
 formed into its equivalent of some other force ; and 
 every display of energy is produced by the expenditure 
 of a corresponding amount of energy in some other 
 form. Heat can produce motion ; and motion can 
 produce electricity, or heat, or light, or chemical action. 
 The various forces can be transformed into one another, 
 and the amount of one necessary to produce a given 
 amount of another can be determined. There is 
 
EVOLUTION. 57 
 
 conservation of energy, and there is correlation of the 
 physical forces. 
 
 Chemistry turned attention from the movements of 
 planets to the movements of atoms, and furnished the 
 imagination with a scientific basis upon which to 
 construct theories of the method by which all things 
 were built up out of the invisible. It was proved in 
 the laboratory that all matter is made up of a limited 
 number of chemical elements which are apparently 
 indestructible ; that these elements combine with one 
 another in definite proportions ; that they replace one 
 another in compounds in such a way that a fixed weight 
 of one is always equivalent to a fixed weight of 
 another; and that when two elements can combine 
 with each other in several proportions there is some 
 simple ratio between the weights of one that combine 
 with a fixed weight of the other. 
 
 Calculations that apply to tons apply equally to 
 pounds, or to the smallest weights imaginable. It was 
 inferred that each element has an ultimate atom of 
 inconceivable minuteness, which yet possesses a fixed 
 weight peculiar to itself; that these atoms unite to 
 form molecules ; and that molecules of various elements 
 unite to form chemical compounds. Thus another 
 great step was taken in the unifying of the conception 
 of Nature, and all substances were seen as built up 
 from the simple to the complex, and almost from the 
 formless to the formed. 
 
 The atomic theory is one of the best examples of a 
 truly scientific theory produced by the action of sound 
 imagination in illuminating and connecting ascertained 
 
58 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 facts. It provides an explanation for every fact coming 
 within its scope, and it is a trustworthy guide to 
 discovery by enabling us to predict the results of 
 experiments. Imagination traces the atoms in space, 
 and sees their relative positions, and the symmetrical 
 or unsymmetrical grouping of their molecules, until 
 they are discussed as if they were real tangible objects. 
 Chemical compounds are represented by graphic 
 formulae, in which the chemist deals with the arrange- 
 ment of atoms, and the changes that may take place 
 among them, somewhat as one may deal with the 
 pieces in a game of chess. Manufacturers calculate 
 how many atoms, or pounds, or tons of one element 
 are needed to unite with or to replace a certain quantity 
 of another element ; and a schoolboy can calculate how 
 much iron or zinc will set free the quantity of hydrogen 
 needed to fill a balloon of known capacity. 
 
 Our knowledge of imaginary atoms is so accurate, 
 and the unifying of the conception of Nature is so 
 advanced, that external properties may be to some 
 extent predicted from knowledge of the chemical 
 composition ; and complex compounds have been built 
 up to respond to special therapeutical demands, as in 
 the case of some synthetic drugs which relieve pain 
 and lower the temperature of the body in fever. 
 
 While other workers were engaged in establishing 
 the reign of fixed law in the inorganic world the 
 biologist by the aid of the microscope discovered that 
 every plant is formed of cells derived from a single 
 original cell or particle of apparently simple structure. 
 Soon afterwards it was found that every animal is built 
 
EVOLUTION. 59 
 
 up of somewhat similar cells derived from an original 
 cell. It seemed at first incredible that hair, and skin, 
 and bone, and brain should all be formed of cells which, 
 in an early stage of development, were indistinguishable 
 from one another, and that at one period of development 
 an insect might almost be mistaken for a man. Facts 
 must always be accepted, and, as all matter must now 
 be thought of as built up of atoms, so all living beings, 
 vegetable and animal, must be thought of as built up 
 of cells. 
 
 When the worker in the laboratory discovered that all 
 matter is one, and that all force is one, and when the 
 biologist also announced that so far as he could see all 
 life is one, the way became clear for a theory to explain 
 all things as made by progression from the simple to 
 the complex. Science seeks for one great all-embracing 
 law to establish unbroken sequence in eternal order. In 
 every period of history some theory of the method of 
 production of the universe of things had to be invented 
 to try to satisfy the reason ; and the explanation 
 invented must always be in harmony with the thought 
 of the age. Intelligence demands an efficient cause ; 
 and modern science suggests a comprehensive theory 
 by which all things are seen as produced by continuous 
 advance from the formless to the formed, from the 
 indefinite and incoherent to the definite and coherent, 
 from like to unlike, from simple to complex, from 
 nebular fog to solar system, and even from blind force 
 to conscious intellect. Formal causes were not 
 thought of. 
 
 According to the popular lecturer of the present day 
 
60 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 on the origin of all things by evolution we may suppose 
 that " in the beginning " there was nothing in existence 
 but force. This force occupied all space in the form of 
 electrons or points as nearly as possible like geometrical 
 points, which have position but not magnitude. These 
 points of force began to concentrate around an infinite 
 number of centres, and by circling and squeezing 
 together formed atoms. Millions of points of force 
 formed an atom ; and then millions of atoms formed 
 the substance which we recognise as matter, since a 
 few atoms could not act sufficiently upon our senses 
 to produce the impression, or delusion, that force is 
 matter. 
 
 The mass of matter, according to the evolution 
 theory, now took the form of the primitive nebulosity, 
 and constructed the solar system, as described by the 
 nebular hypothesis of Laplace. As each molten world 
 cooled down the atoms set to work to compose the 
 variety of compounds needed for the special require- 
 ments, and the earth was provided with minerals as we 
 find it. Under the guidance of the persistence of force 
 gold, and silver, and iron were stowed away in suitable 
 places and compounds, and soil was made suitable for 
 the growth of plants. 
 
 There were many difficulties to overcome, but the 
 persistence of force acting along with the selective 
 power of the atoms succeeded in accomplishing all the 
 work that provides us with food for study. Oxygen 
 and hydrogen were produced in enormous quantities, 
 and were caused to combine into water by the simple 
 expedient of exposing them to flashes of lightning ; and 
 
EVOLUTION. 6l 
 
 the resulting water surrounded the earth with a steam 
 jacket which facilitated chemical transformations, until 
 the surface of the molten globe had cooled sufficiently 
 to permit of condensation of the vapour. Arrangements 
 were made to form soil suitable for the growth of plants, 
 and a regular routine system was instituted for the 
 evaporation of water and the descent of it again as rain. 
 
 There are still one or two points at which, according 
 to several high authorities on evolution, it is permissible 
 to suppose the interference of supernatural agency, 
 though some seem to think that fresh discovery, or 
 hypothesis, may at any moment supply the deficiency 
 in our knowledge of natural causation, and so make all 
 reference to the Creator unnecessary. We cannot at 
 present conceive how the transition was made from 
 the inorganic to the organic, or how the force became 
 life. In order to see unity and continuity throughout 
 all, so as to form a comprehensive theory of the universe 
 as the product of evolution, it is necessary to have pro- 
 gression by natural law from the chemical to the vital, 
 from dead matter to living organisms, and from force to 
 intellect. 
 
 Our forefathers did not find any difficulty in believing 
 that fungi and small insects originate spontaneously 
 in hot and moist soil, and such origin was commonly 
 accepted as fact. A few years ago attempts were made 
 by scientific observers to prove that under suitable con- 
 ditions of heat and moisture living bodies will appear 
 in fluids from which all germs have been carefully 
 excluded; and it was mainly the experiments of Pasteur 
 and Lister which convinced thinkers that every living 
 
62 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 germ has been derived from a previously existing germ, 
 so that some external cause is necessary to account for 
 the first germ. Is it impossible to imagine any reason- 
 able hypothesis according to which the inorganic might 
 have become organic ? 
 
 The evolutionist may say that the methods adopted 
 to prove the impossibility of the production of living 
 bodies from inorganic matter depend upon the produc- 
 tion and maintenance of sterility, and upon an isolation 
 which would not exist under natural conditions. The 
 sterilised substance is protected from all the great 
 influences which we may suppose necessary for the 
 transformation of the inorganic into the organic. We 
 know that many of the most stable compounds will 
 readily decompose when subjected to electric currents, 
 even such substances as water and salt being thus easily 
 reduced to their elements. Electricity can also cause 
 the direct combination of carbon and hydrogen into 
 acetylene ; and carbohydrates may be regarded as the 
 basis of organic compounds. We also know that 
 chemical elements have their affinities especially active 
 when in a nascent state ; and that electricity can con- 
 vert oxygen into the more active form of ozone, and 
 may intensify the activity of other elements. Under 
 the natural conditions existing at the beginning of life 
 the elements were subject to the combined action of 
 special temperature, and pressure, and moisture, and 
 electricity, and other influences prolonged over long 
 periods of time, so that changes and combinations 
 may have been effected which now seem impossible. 
 
 To complete the evolution theory at this point we 
 
EVOLUTION. 63 
 
 must suppose that albuminous compounds were formed, 
 and that the physical forces so combined in the complex 
 molecule as to assume the characteristics of vital force. 
 Half-a-century ago the most advanced chemists believed 
 that substances such as urea and alcohol could not be 
 produced except under the influence of animal or plant 
 life, whereas now they can be formed out of inorganic 
 material ; and it is quite probable that the method of 
 forming glycerine from its chemical elements will soon 
 be discovered. Why not then go on to the formation 
 of albumen ? Having obtained the first living particle, 
 the theory of evolution assumes that it will go on 
 developing from the simple to the complex, from the 
 unicellular to the multicellular, from the lowly organised 
 to the highly organised. 
 
 Herbert Spencer in his " First Principles " says : 
 "Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant 
 dissipation of motion, during which the matter passes 
 from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a defi- 
 nite, coherent heterogeneity; and during which the 
 retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation." 
 Thus it is supposed that force was indissolubly united 
 with the matter which was originally diffused uniformly 
 throughout space, and that every condensation and 
 combination of the matter was necessarily accompanied 
 by corresponding rearrangement or transformation, or 
 development of force ; and we may suppose as a hypo- 
 thesis that when the atoms formed a complex molecule 
 like albumen the force made corresponding advance in 
 the direction of vital force, since structural complexity 
 involves functional complexity. 
 
64 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 A living cell seems only a little mass of albuminous 
 material. We may some day construct a compound 
 in the laboratory apparently similar to protoplasm in 
 structure and composition, and we may produce some 
 chemical and physical imitations of vital processes; and 
 yet there are peculiarities of function which we can 
 neither imitate nor understand. Chemical processes 
 can be made to go on almost automatically, but life 
 builds up its protoplasm out of inorganic material by a 
 system of integration and disintegration, as if in obedi- 
 ence to a central authority. Protoplasm is excitable or 
 irritable, so that it responds to external impressions by 
 inherent contractility, and in modes which no pheno- 
 mena exhibited by inanimate matter can be said to 
 resemble in essence ; and the living cell transforms food 
 into energy, and can reproduce itself. However small and 
 simple the cell may be, the possession of life gives it 
 something we cannot account for by physical forces ; 
 but then we do not know what advance may be 
 made in knowledge in the future, and it is urged that 
 progress from the non-living to the living may have 
 been by natural causation, though we cannot at present 
 explain how. 
 
 Thus an attempt is made by evolution to give an 
 adequate explanation of causation in the whole series 
 of changes through which all things have passed from 
 the imperceptible to the perceptible, from the inorganic 
 to the organic, and from the lowly organised to the 
 highly organised. The ancients regarded the universe 
 as a cosmos, or a unity in which all worked together 
 in perfect order ; but they were convinced that the 
 
EVOLUTION. 65 
 
 harmony pervading all is due to the ever-present guid- 
 ance of the Divine Mind. Evolution conceives all 
 things as forming a continuous chain of causation, and 
 tries to show that change and progress took place step 
 by step necessarily and inevitably without external or 
 supernatural interference, and that everything is con- 
 trolled by fixed laws. The theologian here asks where 
 there is place for the Creator to act ; and evolution 
 replies, Nowhere. Hence evolution and theology are 
 incompatible. 
 
 Each generation, and each individual, must face the 
 same mysteries if desirous of acting up to the high 
 privilege of intelligent beings. The origin of life and 
 the condition after death are no better known than at 
 the beginning of history ; and discussions on the means 
 of reconciling belief in the omnipotence and foreknow- 
 ledge of the Creator with the exercise of free-will by 
 man have no effect in solving the problem for posterity. 
 The theory of evolution stated this problem in new 
 terms, and was supposed to have proved by science that 
 supernatural interference does not and cannot take 
 place. Teachers of religion were alarmed and indig- 
 nant at the ability and patronising confidence with 
 which their doctrines were assailed, and many volumes 
 testify to the importance of evolution from the Christian 
 standpoint. 
 
 During the confusion of conflict appeals to calm judg- 
 ment are unheeded ; but now that the great champions 
 have passed away, or become mellowed by age, it 
 seems possible to consider more judicially the matters 
 in dispute from the onlooker's point of view. The 
 
 O.M. F 
 
66 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 leading exponents and advocates of the evolution theory 
 were Darwin, Huxley, and Spencer; and they may 
 be taken as typical of the best writers on the subject 
 whose work has become authoritative. Darwin was 
 not a controversialist, and was content to occupy him- 
 self with the study of plants and animals as modified 
 by many causes, and as possibly connected by common 
 descent ; so that his writings are mainly concerned with 
 observed facts regarding them, and his suppositions as 
 to causes of change in them. 
 
 Whatever may be thought of some minor writers in 
 support of evolution, the three leaders were genuine 
 seekers of truth, earnest, sincere, and with desire to be 
 honest and upright in thought and act. When such 
 men are at variance with others of similar character 
 upon any vital question there must be some confusion 
 of thought, or some blindness due to prejudice or 
 passion, or some misuse of language. Why should 
 there have been so much antipathy manifested between 
 teachers of physical science and teachers of religion ? 
 
 Religious teachers were generally ignorant of the 
 science which was monopolising the attention of many 
 of the greatest minds, and yet they were accustomed to 
 insist on the acceptance of their teaching with dogmatic 
 assurance, independent of reason or knowledge, and to 
 consider the laity as inferior in mental culture. This 
 attitude is naturally exasperating to a man of indepen- 
 dent mind, and was especially so to one like Huxley, 
 who was so satisfied with his own acquirements and 
 education that he responded to dogmatic utterances 
 with contempt for those ignorant of science and afraid 
 
EVOLUTION. 67 
 
 to base their teaching upon reason and knowledge. He 
 felt himself on a higher plane of science than the 
 religious teacher, and resented bitterly appeals to 
 authority which the theologian is so apt to make. As 
 honest opponents learn to know each other they are 
 often surprised to find how easily they might have been 
 reconciled. 
 
 In the heat of controversy Huxley was very emphatic 
 in asserting his confidence in natural causation ; and 
 yet he guarded his statements by qualifications which 
 his opponents often failed to appreciate. In saying 
 that there is orderly progression from blind force to 
 intellect, he was supposed to be making a profession of 
 atheism ; yet he did not necessarily deny the work of 
 the Creator. One may say that there is orderly pro- 
 gress from clay to house, though there is an architect, 
 and a brickmaker, and a builder. 
 
 When determined to remain agnostic regarding all 
 things outside the domain of science Huxley said : 
 " The whole world, living and not living, is the result 
 of the mutual interaction, according to definite laws, 
 of the powers possessed by the molecules of which the 
 primitive nebulosity of the universe was composed." 
 This may at first seem a denial of any control by the 
 Creator ; but it must be noted that the mutual inter- 
 actions took place in obedience to definite laws. Who 
 made the laws ? The molecules were possessed of 
 special powers. Who gave them the powers ? It 
 is not denied that the Supreme Intelligence made 
 the laws, and planned the interactions as Grand 
 Architect. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Spencer went further than Huxley in attempting to 
 carry out the evolution theory to its ultimate extremes, 
 and to explain the origin of the universe without the 
 Creator ; and his opponents had good reason to criticise 
 him severely. Huxley always described himself as an 
 agnostic, and was quite honest in doing so. He could 
 not find out God by all his physical research, and thus 
 was agnostic. Spencer assumed that in the beginning 
 there was the homogeneous nebulosity pervading all 
 space, and that this dead incoherent matter began of 
 itself to act, and went on to produce all things. By 
 the employment of a multitude of words not generally 
 understood he led the simple to suppose that there was 
 some sound sense beneath his language, and that some- 
 thing could be produced by nothing if there were only 
 added the processes of integration, differentiation, 
 decomposition, reconstruction, and the spontaneous 
 evolution of organised heterogeneity. The simple fact 
 remains, that what is homogeneous will not begin to 
 move of itself; and if it begins to move of itself it is not 
 homogeneous. 
 
 The attempt to explain the universe without any 
 acknowledgment of the Creator fails ; and Spencer 
 says at page 131 of "First Principles" that we are 
 persistently conscious of a Power manifested to us, 
 though we are unable to learn anything of the nature 
 of that Power ; and at page 98 he says that though the 
 Absolute cannot be known, yet its existence is a neces- 
 sary datum of consciousness, and the belief which this 
 datum constitutes has a higher warrant than any other. 
 Thus while holding that in one sense God cannot be 
 
EVOLUTION. 69 
 
 known, it is admitted that we can know nothing else 
 with the same positive certainty. 
 
 The evolutionist attempts to begin by postulating the 
 eternal self-existence of matter and force ; yet he is 
 compelled to admit the existence of the Power beyond. 
 It is infinitely more rational to postulate at once the 
 eternal self-existence of the Divine Mind. To say that 
 blind force made all things out of primitive fog is not a 
 scientific advance on the statement that Elohim made 
 all things out of nothing. 
 
 Science is impossible without definite knowledge ; 
 and definite knowledge is made possible only by the 
 special interferences of the Creator in the construction 
 of the universe. Continuous evolution without such 
 interference could have no fixed stopping points. All 
 would be in a state of flux. There would be no possi- 
 bility of the existence of the horse as a distinct species, 
 since all animal forms would be changing masses of 
 developing protoplasm. It is the fiat of the Almighty 
 which alone gives permanence even to a chemical 
 element, and thus makes knowledge and science 
 possible. 
 
 It seems incredible that a student of science could 
 ever have supported the notion that formless matter 
 grew into the universe, or that blind force did definite 
 work. The physical structure of the universe is a 
 stupendous temple built up of less than one hundred 
 kinds of chemical atoms. Each atom has its own 
 fixed weight, and its own peculiar properties. There is 
 now discussion as to the special form of the atom of each 
 element, and it is supposed that each may be compared 
 
70 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 to a house of peculiar shape filled with electrons or 
 points of force. Out of the incoherent, homogeneous 
 nebulosity the atoms must have been formed ; and the 
 formation of the first atom of hydrogen, with its won- 
 derful properties, was as great a miracle as the creation 
 of man. 
 
 Chemistry, even alone, shows the impossibility of 
 believing in continuous evolution ; and physical science, 
 which has been supposed by some to lead to atheism, 
 points with decision to the necessity of interference by 
 Omnipotent Intelligence. Each chemical element had 
 to be fixed in the size, and shape, and weight, and 
 qualities of its first atom ; and the absolute stability of 
 the atom in every respect is so important that if even 
 the atom of hydrogen were in any way to change its 
 affinities the whole universe would be destroyed. Omni- 
 potence had to arrange that the foundation bricks 
 should be unchangeable and indestructible. Every 
 particle of a chemical compound must always contain 
 the same kind of atoms arranged in the same way. 
 The atom of oxygen had to be formed so that when 
 united with two atoms of hydrogen the result would be 
 water ; which is something very different from either 
 hydrogen or oxygen. 
 
 Means had to be devised for holding the atoms of 
 the universe together. We speak of chemical attraction, 
 but what is it ? How can any force pull the earth 
 towards the sun ? We know no better than the 
 ancients who spoke only of the power of the Creator. 
 What is electricity ? or gravitation ? or inertia ? It is 
 now said that electricity has inertia, and, therefore, can 
 
EVOLUTION. 71 
 
 neither begin to act of itself, nor leave off its action 
 when begun, but as some external power or force com- 
 pels. What is causing electricity to obey in the working 
 of engines ? The will of man. 
 
 A very weak electric current is sufficient to separate 
 the atoms in compounds undergoing electrolysis ; and 
 atoms of one constituent collect at one pole while those 
 of another constituent collect at the opposite pole. 
 Thus sodium goes to one pole and chlorine to the other 
 in the decomposition of common salt ; and when metals 
 are coated with gold in the electrolytic bath the metal 
 to be coated is made the pole for the gold to deposit 
 on. We must believe it possible to put a layer of gold 
 only one atom thick on a metal ; and the atoms in the 
 solution must be floating about past one another as if 
 ready to go asunder altogether. Suppose the binding 
 force to be loosened thus throughout the whole earth, 
 or throughout the solar system, so that the atoms could 
 separate, all might vanish like the substance of a 
 dream. Fortunately electricity has to obey the Supreme 
 Will. 
 
 Haeckel, who is distinguished by German thorough- 
 ness without German insight, tries to carry the evolution 
 theory to its logical conclusions, and to look upon the 
 universe as an infinite sea of fog condensing in myriad 
 forms which progress in complexity from atoms to 
 plants and animals. He regards all things as a mass 
 of fluctuating substance, and strives to emulate the 
 profundity of Goethe in the search for causes and origins. 
 It is very interesting to watch the efforts of an evo- 
 lutionist attempting to follow the example of Faust; 
 
72 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 for the evolutionist denies the existence of arche- 
 typal forms, and is unconscious of his blindness, 
 while Faust had no doubt of the existence of the 
 Mothers when he sought for the Ideal in the light 
 of the Divine Trinity. 
 
 " A burning Tripod tells thee thou hast found 
 The deepest art below the deepest ground ; 
 And by its light the Mothers thou wilt see 
 Some sit, and others stand, or, it may be, 
 In movement are. Formation, Transformation, 
 Eternal play of the Eternal Mind, 
 With Semblances of all things in creation 
 For ever and for ever sweeping round." 
 
 According to the German thorough evolutionist man 
 is a particular phenomenal mass of matter and energy, 
 existing only as a transitory unimportant phase in the 
 evolution of ever-changing homogeneity, or as a bubble 
 on the surface of the sea of protoplasm which is in a 
 state of continuous transformation. Nothing can 
 remain the same for the millionth part of a second 
 according to the evolution hypothesis, and yet man is 
 upon some fixed and secure spot, and endures long 
 enough to study the phenomena exhibited by the matter 
 and blind force of which he is a temporary phase. 
 Haeckel thus seems unintentionally to reduce the. 
 evolution theory to absurdity by logical thorough- 
 ness; for he makes the believer in evolution appear 
 like a lunatic enjoying his food and discussing its 
 value, while convinced that his body has been 
 carried away so that he consists of nothing but his 
 head. 
 
EVOLUTION. 73 
 
 Haeckel professes to be a tiny particle of protoplasm 
 of no importance or permanence, yet revels in the 
 arrogant assertion of atheistical dogmas ; whereas 
 Huxley and Spencer maintain an indefinite position, 
 with a background of possible theism to which to 
 retreat. As he advanced in thought Spencer learned 
 to say : " A Power of which the nature remains for 
 ever inconceivable, and to which no limits in Time or 
 Space can be imagined, works in us certain effects." 
 Towards the conclusion of his life's work, in which he 
 manifested a devotion to what he believed to be 
 truth which few of the great teachers of the world have 
 excelled, he says of the most powerful and instructed 
 thinker : " But one truth must grow ever clearer 
 the truth that there is an Inscrutable Existence 
 everywhere manifested, to which he can neither find 
 nor conceive either beginning or end. Amid the 
 mysteries which become the more mysterious the 
 more they are thought about, there will remain the 
 one absolute certainty that he is ever in presence of 
 an Infinite and Eternal Energy from which all things 
 proceed." 
 
 Instead of being an atheist Spencer is simply a great 
 thinker who has puzzled himself in the search for a 
 boundary between the natural and the supernatural, 
 and has proved for himself that man by his own wisdom 
 cannot find out God. Yet he says that Matter is the 
 symbol of some form of Power absolutely unknown to 
 us ; so that he attained very near to knowledge. His 
 great mistake lies in the supposition that because he 
 does not know, nobody else can know. Matter is the 
 
74 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 symbol of a Power, but it is something more ; it fur- 
 nishes a revelation of the thoughts of God to him who 
 can read. The great thinker who does not know God 
 may be compared to a man who writes profoundly on 
 the properties of the soil of Egypt, but is convinced 
 that hieroglyphics are meaningless accidental imprints 
 made by leaves or animals. The peasant who knows 
 nothing of the chemistry of the soil may be able to read 
 them. 
 
 Religious men naturally felt irritated when men like 
 Huxley and Spencer assumed that God is unknowable. 
 A scholar could hardly help becoming indignant with 
 those who, because themselves ignorant of the language 
 of his favourite author, persisted in asserting that all he 
 wrote had no meaning ; and in the discussions between 
 agnostics and Christians the attitude of the agnostics 
 was felt to be worse than that of those who would deny 
 all sense or meaning to the most cherished letters 
 of a parent. Only the self-conceit of ignorance and 
 inexperience could prompt anyone to assume that the 
 vast multitude of the most eminent and highly cultured 
 men on earth must be under delusion or speaking 
 falsely when they declare that they are conscious of the 
 presence and nature of God. 
 
 Evolutionists attempt to show that there is no place 
 for supernatural interference ; while Christians see the 
 spiritual pervading all. The Power of Spencer may be 
 a cause of anarchy ; while the Power recognised by 
 Christians is infinite in knowledge, wisdom, goodness, 
 and truth. The evolutionist assumes there is no cause 
 or agency where he cannot see one ; and he may be 
 
EVOLUTION. 75 
 
 compared to a fly confident that there is no power 
 capable of controlling the wind, and believing when in 
 shelter of an umbrella that the wind has been con- 
 trolled in some way by blind force. God acts by laws, 
 as a man acts by laws when he saves his child from the 
 storm. The evolutionist thinks he must know if there 
 were any intervention ; but a slight impulse on the 
 ether may have the effect of a wall completely arresting 
 a storm. 
 
 Many Christians had made an idol of the Bible, 
 instead of meditating on the reasons which induced 
 holy men of former times to collect and preserve these 
 writings as specially sacred or inspired. They forgot 
 that the letter killeth, and that it is the spirit which 
 giveth life. The symbol and allegory were valued for 
 themselves, rather than for the moral truth they were 
 intended to teach. It had become a generally accepted 
 notion that the Days of Genesis were periods of twenty- 
 four hours, and that Adam and Eve must have been 
 produced instantaneously ; though in speaking of work 
 performed by God in creation there can be no question 
 of time, since past, present, and future are alike to 
 Him. 
 
 Huxley and other evolutionists assumed that these 
 notions of the work of creation were essential to Christi- 
 anity, and naturally attacked them with much animus 
 as being diametrically opposed to evolution ; and it was 
 some time before Christians generally awoke to the fact 
 that it matters nothing to the truth of Christianity, or 
 of the teaching of the Bible, whether the work of 
 creation occupied seven minutes or seven millions of 
 
76 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 years. Many years are spent in producing a man or a 
 tree under ordinary conditions, yet he is no less formed 
 of the earth. Some theologians made the mistake of 
 supposing that the Bible is designed to teach science, 
 and evolutionists naturally took the same view ; 
 and so both parties made much of reference to 
 movements of the sun and stars that may be 
 scientifically incorrect, but are the only modes of 
 reference employed in ordinary speech or compre- 
 hended by the people. 
 
 Much of the bitterness of controversy was due to 
 neglect of definition. There was not clearness of 
 thought, and it was only after much conflict that dis- 
 putants learned they had been concentrating their 
 energies in attacking positions where there were no 
 enemies. The word creation was employed in two 
 distinct senses, and so was the word evolution. When 
 the evolutionist attacked belief in creation, he meant 
 by creation instantaneous production without regard to 
 law something arbitrary and incomprehensible. The 
 Christian believer in creation meant a method of pro- 
 duction by the Divine Mind, however extended in time 
 or governed by law. 
 
 One Christian regards the evolution theory as a most 
 pernicious and subtle error, which he is bound to 
 denounce with all his might as the enemy of religion, 
 and as destructive of all morality. He is thinking of 
 the theory which asserts that blind force and primitive 
 fog produced the universe by themselves, thus refusing all 
 recognition of the Creator. Another devout Christian, 
 to the horror of his friends, proclaims his acceptance 
 
EVOLUTION. 77 
 
 of the evolution theory ; but he is thinking of a slow, 
 orderly method of creation, in which the Creator is 
 always present, acting as a gardener might act in pro- 
 ducing varieties of plants by special plans and means 
 of interference, though according to an order of cause 
 and effect which men might see as law. To this 
 Christian the atheistic or thorough evolutionist is like 
 a foolish stranger denying the existence of the gardener, 
 because the work of grafting and producing changes 
 has been so cleverly done that no scars or traces of 
 interference are to be found by his inferior powers of 
 observation. 
 
 The question is often asked, Do you believe in 
 evolution ? Before an answer is given a satisfactory 
 explanation of the meaning of the term is neces- 
 sary ; whether blind force is to be accepted as 
 supreme, or whether Divine Intelligence is recognised 
 as the source of order, and law, and harmony in the 
 universe. 
 
 Christian writers made a mistake in blaming Huxley 
 and other evolutionists for their agnosticism, at least 
 when there was humility enough to admit that others 
 might know. The agnosticism was inevitable. It was 
 honest to confess ignorance. Those who seek for God 
 by physical investigation need a teacher to refer them 
 to the experience of all ages which proclaims, " Verily 
 Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, 
 the Saviour." 
 
 The great question raised by the evolution theory is, 
 How can man find out God ? Even among religious 
 teachers there are many round-about ways taken to 
 
78 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 avoid meeting the ever-present Personal Ruler. Thought 
 is obscured by words, and vision by theories. A sense 
 of distance is kept up by the employment of such terms 
 as the Unknowable, the Absolute, the All-pervading 
 Power, the Source of Truth. Humility and docility 
 are essential qualifications for the study, and they are 
 not easily acquired. The fear of the Lord was 
 recognised as the beginning of wisdom by profound 
 thinkers in the past ; and it was said that the 
 secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. 
 There is, however, no way by which one man can 
 confide the secret to another, since each must learn 
 by experience. 
 
 Evolutionists virtually say, " Show us the Father." 
 One correct reply would be, " Clouds and darkness are 
 round about Him ; righteousness and judgment are the 
 habitation of His seat." Instead of searching in the 
 laws regulating the union of matter and force, it is 
 necessary to meditate in solitude upon righteousness 
 and judgment. Another correct reply would be, " He 
 that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." Those who 
 study physical science in the light of the Archetypal 
 Man always find that, " The Heavens declare the glory 
 of God ; and the firmament sheweth His handywork. 
 Day unto day uttereth speech ; and night unto night 
 sheweth knowledge." 
 
 We may compare the Creator to the designer and 
 constructor of a vast workshop, where all kinds of 
 processes and machinery are arranged in an infinite 
 variety of forms and systems, all mutually supporting 
 and assisting one another to maintain stability and 
 
EVOLUTION. 79 
 
 promote efficiency. Primitive man was like a child or 
 a poet, with great admiration for the marvellous agency 
 providing him with all he wanted, but satisfied to accept 
 everything as supplied by an Omnipotent Father, and 
 caring nothing whether one or one million machines 
 were employed in bringing about the result. The 
 student of science had to consider how processes depend 
 upon one another, and how machines interact. There 
 could be no knowledge of physical science until some 
 mechanical connection was recognised, and one pheno- 
 menon was seen as depending upon another as if the 
 Creator never interfered. By tracing the systems of 
 machines further and further back so as to increase 
 our knowledge of causation, we are now almost ready to 
 believe that the whole machinery of the universe is con- 
 trolled by infinitesimal impressions upon a geometrical 
 point of ether. 
 
 The evolution theory enables us to form a more 
 comprehensive conception of the universe as made by 
 the Divine Mind on a definite system and according to 
 fixed laws, by continuous production of more and more 
 complex forms progressing from the inconceivably 
 minute atom to man himself. Special impulses and 
 modifications of environment needed to construct the 
 amazing variety out of a few kinds of atoms are 
 apparently concealed, and yet provide the pupil with an 
 infinite source of enjoyment as he strives to learn how 
 to make the complex out of the simple and to develop 
 the lower organism into the higher. There is continuity 
 of plan, and the interweaving of all into one magnificent 
 edifice, with all junctions blended harmoniously so that 
 
80 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 no faults are visible, and the Grand Architect is 
 revealed as infinite in power and wisdom. 
 
 " God moves in a mysterious way 
 His wonders to perform; 
 He plants His footsteps in the sea, 
 And rides upon the storm. 
 
 11 Deep in unfathomable mines 
 Of never-failing skill 
 He treasures up His bright designs, 
 And works His sovereign will." 
 
8i 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 evolution (continued). 
 
 What constitutes species ? Until fifty years ago the 
 general belief was that each species has descended from 
 parents specially created, and placed upon the earth to 
 remain distinct from all other species for ever. It was 
 supposed that there are just as many distinct species 
 as there were distinct types created. There seemed no 
 reason to doubt that a sheep had always been a sheep, 
 and would remain a sheep until the end of time. 
 
 All living beings, whether plants or animals, present 
 themselves in groups composed of members evidently 
 intimately related ; and those which can be supposed 
 to be descended from the same parents are naturally 
 formed into one class. The members of a species have 
 marked likeness in structure, character, and habits; 
 and, above all, they intermix and breed, as if recognising 
 their close relationship, while they refuse under normal 
 conditions to breed with members of another species. 
 Thus it seems a simple matter to arrange plants and 
 animals into species ; and in Genesis we find it stated 
 that " whatsoever moveth upon the earth, after their 
 families, went forth out of the ark." The families 
 seemed quite distinct. 
 
 In dealing with plants and animals low in the scale 
 o.M. G 
 
82 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 of organisation it is found that distinctions between 
 species become apparently more vague and arbitrary. 
 The gradual change of tadpoles into frogs would suggest 
 that animal types are not permanent. Moths and butter- 
 flies change their form in a manner that must have been 
 puzzling to the primitive observer ; and the peculiar 
 forms assumed by some fish at different periods of 
 development have caused confusion in classification 
 even to modern naturalists. Increase of knowledge of 
 various countries reveals forms apparently intermediate 
 between species, so that the species seems to have 
 changed in character owing to the influence of climate 
 or some other cause. Instead of one definite form of 
 oak that everyone may recognise, a variety are found 
 with characters gradually passing into one another, and 
 showing resemblances to other trees, until it becomes 
 difficult to define what constitutes an oak. 
 
 Plants and animals descended from the same parents 
 vary much in appearance and characters, and breeders 
 soon learn to produce modifications by accumulating 
 slight successive variations through the tendency of 
 heredity to transmit peculiarities to the offspring. 
 Thus there seemed something plastic in the organism ; 
 and attempts were soon made to discover how far man 
 has the power to modify or alter species. Moses 
 thought it necessary to publish as an express com- 
 mand : " Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a 
 diverse kind ; thou shalt not sow thy field with two 
 kinds of seed." From this it would appear that the 
 Israelites had been trying to mix species; and no doubt 
 whatever they knew on that subject had been learned 
 
EVOLUTION. 83 
 
 from the Egyptians. The peculiar mixed animal forms 
 which some ancient artists delighted to depict seem to 
 indicate that there was a morbid longing to produce 
 monstrosities. 
 
 The knowledge of physical laws and organic nature 
 possessed' by the Babylonians, Egyptians, and other 
 ancient nations was confined to a privileged class, and 
 thus was easily lost when the kingdoms were destroyed 
 and the inhabitants killed or carried away as slaves. 
 Greek and Roman philosophers revived the study of 
 physical science for a time ; but a cloud soon settled 
 again over the human intellect, and for more than a 
 thousand years of the Christian era ignorance of science 
 was regarded as akin to virtue. 
 
 When mankind awoke once more to the claims 
 of reason and conscience, the war against arbitrary 
 authority and ignorant dogmatism was carried on in 
 England with steady determination and calm certainty 
 of the triumph of truth, so that it produced a great 
 succession of intellectual men of the noblest type by 
 preserving all that was good and beautiful beneath 
 the accumulated rubbish that had to be swept away. 
 Harvey, in 1628, opened the way to a true science of 
 physiology by proving that the circulation of the blood 
 is in obedience to mechanical laws and causes ; yet the 
 extension of the reign of law to vital processes did not 
 impair his confidence in the providence of God, or 
 weaken his desire to worship the Author of all laws. 
 Newton, in 1685, found the purest Christianity to 
 be the natural accompaniment of the most profound 
 thought on the wonders of creation ; and his religious 
 
 g 2 
 
84 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 belief and practice were in no way altered when he 
 placed physical science on a firm basis by establishing 
 the law of gravitation. 
 
 Linnaeus, in 1735, introduced his famous classifica- 
 tion of plants and animals into genera and species ; and 
 by his binary system of nomenclature each kind was 
 given a generic name to signify the wider class to 
 which it belongs, while a specific name particularised 
 the species or family. This clear and definite system 
 of classifying and naming gave a great impetus to the 
 study of botany and zoology, and enabled many workers 
 to combine the same method for a common purpose. 
 The accepted notions of creation did not interfere in 
 any way with the pursuit of science by Linnaeus, nor 
 did scientific study seem in any way at variance with 
 his faith in God, or his belief in Christianity. He 
 believed that there are just as many distinct species as 
 there were distinct types created in the beginning. 
 
 Buffon was greatly influenced by the mathematical 
 triumphs of Newton, and became much interested in 
 theories to explain the origin and present condition of 
 the earth by a succession of changes obedient to natural 
 laws such as that of gravitation. The causes that have 
 modified the surface of the earth so as to produce 
 mountains, and valleys, and oceans, and rocks, and 
 soil, were to him subjects of great importance ; and 
 he discussed the influence of earthquakes, and volcanos, 
 and tides, and winds, and whatever else he could find 
 that seemed to have influence in altering the earth in 
 any way. He began the publication of his immense 
 diffuse work in 1749, and devoted his life to the study 
 
EVOLUTION. 85 
 
 of natural history ; so that his task increased the more 
 in magnitude the more he laboured to show how all 
 things are related to one another. He examined plants 
 and animals, and collected facts to try to discover the 
 causes that produce improvement or degeneration, and 
 that give rise to the diversities which characterise and 
 constitute particular orders of existence. He wished 
 to know the origin of species. 
 
 Spontaneous generation was believed until recently 
 to be a common mode of origin of living beings, and 
 Buffon thought that there is generally diffused a sub- 
 stance universally prolific. This substance he regarded 
 as composed of organic particles which exist in food ; 
 so that an animal is always replenishing its store, and 
 the particles are never destroyed. He says: "These 
 living organic particles being common to all animated 
 beings, they are capable of forming particular species 
 of animals or of vegetables, according to the peculiar 
 arrangement they assume." This seems an applica- 
 tion to the organic world of a kind of atomic theory, 
 resembling that established later by Dalton, according 
 to which the nature of chemical compounds is deter- 
 mined by the number and arrangement of the molecules 
 forming them. The life of an animal was supposed to 
 be the result of the particular lives of its component 
 organic particles, and the life in the particles was said 
 to be primitive and perhaps indestructible. 
 
 Buffon was a man of independent means and a friend 
 of those in authority, and cared little whether his 
 opinions harmonised strictly with traditional dogmas. 
 He had travelled sufficiently in his youth to gain breadth 
 
86 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 of view, and had been influenced by the emancipated 
 intellect of England and Germany before the French 
 people had asserted the rights of man. In France the 
 oppression of the intellect by arbitrary authority, 
 compelling assent to absurd traditions and erroneous 
 dogmas, culminated in an outburst of outraged man- 
 hood which threatened to destroy the treasures of the 
 past, and to substitute a savage anarchy for an orderly 
 despotism ; but fortunately the revolution was confined 
 within bounds which made it useful in stimulating 
 independence of thought and action while preserving 
 respect for law and order. There remained a perma- 
 nent dislike for dogmatism, and a distrust of all who 
 advised submission to authority without reason ; 
 self-confidence was vastly increased, so that ancient 
 creeds and beliefs were subjected to unsparing 
 criticism ; and a rational explanation was sought for 
 all phenomena. 
 
 In the revolt against tyrants who professed to found 
 their authority upon religion there sprang up an 
 irrational antipathy to theology ; and men turned for 
 the solution of all mysteries to the investigators of 
 mechanical, physical, and chemical laws and processes. 
 Reason was proclaimed the only object worthy of 
 worship; but those who thought they had discovered 
 a worthy God overlooked the fact that a Perfect Man 
 is needed to reveal what is Perfect Reason. Hence 
 Goethe said of those who thought physical science all- 
 sufficient : 
 
 11 Reason he calls it see its blessed fruit, 
 Than the brute beast, man is a beastlier brute." 
 
EVOLUTION. 87 
 
 Kant endeavoured in 1755 to apply the principles 
 established by Newton so as to give an explanation of 
 the origin and constitution of the world, showing that 
 all has been formed by the condensation of a primitive 
 form of matter, and that all things are produced and 
 governed in accordance with fixed laws. Goethe, in 
 1790, wrote that all plants are derived from one primi- 
 tive type, and pointed out that all mammals, including 
 man, have skeletons framed on a common fundamental 
 type. There is anatomical unity, since the skeletons 
 are built up of homologous parts, though these parts 
 may vary in many details. 
 
 Laplace, in 1796, further elaborated the nebular 
 theory, which he is generally supposed to have 
 invented, though it seems unlikely that Kant's views 
 did not form a subject of discussion among students 
 of science before the time of Laplace. The tendency 
 of the age was to concentrate attention on physical 
 laws and phenomena, and to account for all things by 
 natural causes, to the ignoring of ancient authority and 
 dogma; yet Laplace, like Newton, wished to trace as 
 closely as possible the footsteps of the Creator, and 
 believed that man as the child of God is intended to 
 understand how all things have been arranged. 
 
 Belief in various grades of humanity, or in a gra- 
 dually descending series of strata of mankind, seems 
 to have been common in all ages. Slavery was regarded 
 as the natural result of superiority, and slave-owners 
 have always been unwilling to admit the truth of the 
 statement that a negro is a man. Erasmus Darwin 
 followed somewhat in the steps of Buffon, and, in 
 
00 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 1794, tried to give explanations of the variety of living 
 forms, and the method by which superiority is acquired ; 
 and Lamarck, in 1802, taught that species are not 
 immutable products of miraculous power, but have 
 evolved from a few simple ancestral types to higher 
 and higher forms by slow and gradual transformation 
 under the influence of natural conditions. Fixed laws 
 and natural processes were supposed to exist and act as 
 independent and adequate efficient causes without any 
 guidance from Divine Intelligence. Adaptation to 
 environment in reciprocal action with heredity was 
 said to cause changes in the organism so as to produce 
 new species ; and man himself was said to be the 
 descendant of apes. 
 
 When an animal is transferred from a hot to a cold 
 climate it acquires a thicker fur or other natural cover- 
 ing, and its descendants are modified to fit them for the 
 new conditions. The breeder knows how to alter animals 
 according as he wishes special production of flesh, or 
 milk, or wool. Active habits cultivated, accumulated, 
 and transmitted by heredity produce the racehorse. 
 Special exercise of organs causes increased growth, and 
 may develop special capacity, while disuse may cause 
 atrophy. Lamarck concluded that species are derived 
 by natural generation from pre-existing animal forms 
 gradually modified by the attempts to adapt themselves 
 to changed conditions of existence. 
 
 Comparative anatomy seemed to confirm the theory 
 of common descent of all animals of the same class, 
 since they are fundamentally the same in structure. In 
 all mammals there are the same number of small bones 
 
EVOLUTION. 89 
 
 in the limb, or spine, or pelvis, similarly arranged and 
 distributed. In some animals certain of these bones 
 may be much enlarged, while others may be rudimen- 
 tary ; some may be fused to others, so that at first sight 
 the number may appear to be deficient, and the form 
 may be very much altered ; yet there is the same essen- 
 tial type. Man has the same number and arrangement 
 of bones, muscles, nerves, glands, &c, as the higher 
 apes, and his vital processes are subject to the same 
 physical and chemical laws. 
 
 Embryology teaches that all vertebrate animals are 
 similar in the early stages of development. Embryos 
 of mammals, birds, and snakes are almost indistinguish- 
 able for a time. The nearer two animals are in struc- 
 ture in the adult form the longer and more closely do 
 their embryos resemble each other. Thus the embryo 
 of a dog begins to develop slight differences from the 
 human embryo at a comparatively early stage, while 
 that of the ape resembles the human until nearer birth. 
 
 Cuvier, in 1812, described fossils of mammals inter- 
 mediate between existing species, and showed that a 
 series of different animal forms have succeeded each 
 other upon the earth. He assumed that each series 
 had been destroyed by special miraculous catastrophe 
 to prepare the way for a new creation. Lamarck main- 
 tained that the struggle of organisms to adapt them- 
 selves to new conditions, and other natural causes, are 
 sufficient to explain both the extinction of some forms 
 and the production of their successors, and that all 
 phenomena can be accounted for without supposing any 
 supernatural interference. 
 
go THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Lyell, in 1830, popularised the geological record, 
 which proves that all stratified rocks have been formed 
 by slow continuous growth, and show no signs of pur- 
 posive catastrophes. Plants and animals were revealed 
 as fossils in the rocks in ascending scale of complexity 
 from the most ancient to the most recent strata, and 
 intermediate forms not only seemed to link existing 
 species, but to connect reptiles with birds, and birds 
 with mammals. The study of geology extended the 
 vista of history indefinitely, and distinctions between 
 species seemed to fade away as the thinker looked back 
 in imagination over myriads of forms gradually receding 
 to the primitive eozoon ; yet believers in the perman- 
 ence of species refused to admit that objects seen afar 
 off are necessarily continuous because the eye fails to 
 distinguish the gap between them, and they reconciled 
 their belief with the geological facts by assuming that 
 each great type of organisation was somehow brought 
 into existence when conditions were suitable, and was 
 extinguished when its place could be filled by an 
 organism better fitted to carry on the development 
 of the earth for the use and enjoyment of its coming 
 ruler. 
 
 On every hand knowledge of the organic world as 
 well as of the inorganic accumulated with amazing 
 rapidity ; and all tended to prove slow and orderly pro- 
 gression from the lowly organised to the highly organised, 
 and to leave no possible opportunity for special creation 
 or miracle. The infinite number of complex compounds 
 forming all material bodies, whether inorganic or organic, 
 had been proved to be built up of the atoms of a few 
 
EVOLUTION. gi 
 
 elements combining in obedience to fixed laws, and the 
 mind of the scientist had become accustomed to the 
 conception of the universe as constructed of invisible 
 atoms. Schleiden, in 1838, showed that plants are built 
 up of elementary cells ; while Schwann soon after dis- 
 covered the cellular composition of animals. Funda- 
 mental identity was thus apparently established in all 
 living things, and all were seen as derived from a common 
 basis of protoplasm, which could be further traced back 
 to the common basis of atoms. 
 
 Atoms, and cells, and physical forces, and chemical 
 processes, became the great objects of study. Such 
 vital functions as respiration and digestion were found 
 to depend on physical conditions and chemical action ; 
 and disease, which had always been regarded as specially 
 mysterious and supernatural in origin, was discussed as 
 the result of the abnormal action or condition of cells. 
 Man was studied as a mass of cells divided into a series 
 of chemical laboratories working in harmony. Time 
 seemed lost when spent in learning ancient languages, 
 or history, or philosophy, or religion, since such subjects 
 did not directly contribute to the triumphs of engineer- 
 ing, and chemistry, and biology. 
 
 Some hypothesis was needed to connect facts and 
 explain phenomena. There can be no science without 
 casual relationship, or something like mechanical depen- 
 dence of one phenomenon upon another. The theory 
 of special creations did not seem to give a scientific 
 explanation of the similarity of framework in all 
 mammals ; nor of the various modifications of form 
 and structure in living beings ; nor of the existence of 
 
92 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 intermediate forms, and the progression from simple to 
 complex organisms revealed by geology ; nor of useless 
 rudimentary organs, such as the rudiment of a tail in 
 a tailless species, or the vermiform appendix, which 
 seems to be merely a cause of appendicitis. The work 
 of Cuvier and Lyell in geology made some kind of 
 evolution hypothesis necessary for students of natural 
 science; but while French teachers like Lamarck did 
 not hesitate to proclaim their belief in the descent of 
 man from apes, most English naturalists were disposed 
 to admit special creations. Religious scruples and 
 unwillingness to give offence helped to prevent dogmatic 
 assertion of the evolution of man from animals. 
 
 The theory of descent from a few simple primitive 
 forms, with modifications produced by use and disuse of 
 parts, and other means adopted by the organism to 
 adapt itself to changes of environment, was found to 
 explain facts which otherwise were apparently anoma- 
 lous. The similar framework of mammals may be 
 accounted for by descent with modifications from a 
 common parent ; useless rudimentary organs are sup- 
 posed to be evidence of atrophy from disuse in ancestors; 
 gradual ascent in geological succession appears as proof 
 of progressive orderly evolution. 
 
 All vertebrate animals are formed upon a framework 
 which through all its modifications exhibits striking 
 homologies of parts, and embryology reveals a unity of 
 design and a typical method of development common 
 to all vertebrates. The human embryo passes in a few 
 months through stages of development apparently similar 
 to those through which all vertebrate animals may be 
 
EVOLUTION. 93 
 
 supposed to have passed in creation by evolution, having 
 resemblances at different stages to an embryo fish, and 
 reptile, and bird, and mammal. Knowledge of embry- 
 ology enables us to explain many pathological condi- 
 tions ; and we find congenital defects in man, such as 
 hare-lip, due to arrest of development, and having 
 parallelism to normal conditions in adult animals, thus 
 seeming to be reversion to type of an animal ancestor. 
 Then there are rudiments of parts and organs which 
 persist in man without apparent use, and which corre- 
 spond to fully-developed parts and organs in adult 
 animals. A reasonable hypothesis for explaining such 
 phenomena is community of descent. 
 
 Darwin may be said to have inherited the evolution 
 theory, and the tendency to be a naturalist, while his 
 environment favoured development in one direction. 
 Provided by ancestors with an income sufficient to 
 enable him to lead a life of leisure, and to make his 
 hobby the business of his life, he had none of the 
 visionary idealism or romantic sentiment of the genius 
 to distract his attention from the study of the plants 
 and animals which abounded in the beautiful country 
 where he had his residence. England has been specially 
 fortunate in the possession of a leisured class voluntarily 
 industrious in the acquisition of knowledge ; and Darwin 
 devoted himself to the study of botany and zoology at 
 a time when every variation in an organism was seen 
 as possible proof of evolution. A voyage to South 
 America as naturalist widened the field of his 
 speculations, and in 1837 ne began the systematic 
 accumulation of all sorts of facts bearing on the 
 
94 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 origin of species, though he did not publish his work 
 until 1859. 
 
 In the following extract from the introduction to 
 " The Origin of Species " there will be found something 
 of an apologetic tone for suggesting in an English 
 book that the accepted theory of special creations was 
 no longer tenable : " In considering the Origin of 
 Species, it is quite conceivable that a naturalist, reflecting 
 on the mutual affinities of organic beings, on their 
 embryological relations, their geographical distribution, 
 geological succession, and other such facts, might come 
 to the conclusion that species had not been independently 
 created, but had descended, like varieties, from other 
 species. Nevertheless, such a conclusion, even if well 
 founded, would be unsatisfactory, until it could be 
 shown how the innumerable species inhabiting this 
 world would have been modified, so as to acquire that 
 perfection of structure and coadaptation which justly 
 excites our admiration." 
 
 Use and disuse of organs, and functional changes 
 produced by efforts to live under altered conditions, had 
 been supposed sufficient to explain the modifications of 
 evolution ; but Darwin says : " It is preposterous to 
 attribute to mere external conditions, the structure, for 
 instance, of the woodpecker, with its feet, tail, beak, 
 and tongue, so admirably adapted to catch insects under 
 the bark of trees." Some active, intelligent Power was 
 evidently needed to produce the woodpecker ; and this 
 was found in Natural Selection. 
 
 Breeders improve or modify domesticated animals by 
 selecting and augmenting peculiarities. Natural Selec- 
 
EVOLUTION. 95 
 
 tion acts in the same way upon the successive variations 
 naturally occurring. Any being with a variation profit- 
 able to itself will have a better chance of surviving in 
 the struggle for existence ; that is, it will be naturally 
 selected. Then by heredity it will propagate its usefully 
 modified form. Less improved forms will tend to 
 become extinct, and only the fittest will survive. Thus 
 Darwin teaches. 
 
 Natural Selection is said to be accumulating slight, 
 successive, favourable variations ; and continually 
 adjusting the inhabitants of each country to one 
 another. Strength, and agility, and cunning are means 
 adopted to keep up the warfare, and to prevent extermi- 
 nation. The snake develops poison to defend itself ; and 
 the snake-like animal that has no poison pretends to 
 have some. The tiger, not satisfied with strength and 
 agility, develops stripes to resemble the bamboos and 
 grass in which he lurks : which seems hardly fair to 
 his innocent victims. Mechanical and automatic actions 
 designed by the Creator to prevent extinction or 
 deterioration are mistaken by Darwin for purposive 
 efforts of animals to improve themselves. 
 
 When comparing the power of Natural Selection 
 with that manifested by the human breeder, Darwin 
 says : " Under Nature, the slightest differences of 
 structure or constitution may well turn the nicely- 
 balanced scale in the struggle for life, and so be pre- 
 served. How fleeting are the efforts and wishes of 
 man ! how short his time ! and consequently how poor 
 will be his results, compared with those accumulated 
 by Nature during whole geological periods ! Can we 
 
96 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 wonder, then, that Nature's productions should be far 
 ' truer ' in character than man's productions : that 
 they should be infinitely better adapted to the most 
 complex conditions of life, and should plainly bear 
 the stamp of far higher workmanship ? " Here we find 
 the term Nature used as synonymous with Natural 
 Selection. 
 
 Thus Natural Selection is infinitely superior to man 
 in power, wisdom, thoughtfulness, foresight, and every 
 other quality necessary for the best imaginable gardener 
 and breeder of animals. For fifty years the advocates 
 of the evolution theory who disliked to speak or think 
 of the Divine Ruler, were longing for some method of 
 filling the gap in causation without acknowledging God 
 as the Cause of causes. Other evolutionists had recog- 
 nised the struggle for existence as one of the means 
 influencing the changes in plants and animals which 
 might be supposed to occur in originating one species 
 or variety from another, and the survival of the fittest 
 was no new idea ; but nobody had thought of investing 
 the survival of the fittest with Divine attributes. At 
 page 58 of " The Origin of Species " we find it stated : 
 " This preservation of favourable individual differences 
 and variations, and the destruction of those which are 
 injurious, I have called Natural Selection, or the 
 Survival of the Fittest." At page 60 there is the 
 following : " It may metaphorically be said that 
 natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinising, 
 throughout the world, the slightest variations : rejecting 
 those that are bad, preserving and adding up all that 
 are good, silently and insensibly working, whenever and 
 
EVOLUTION. 97 
 
 wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of each 
 organic being in relation to its organic and inorganic 
 conditions of life." This has considerable resemblance 
 to the statement, " Are not two sparrows sold for a 
 farthing ? and not one of them shall fall on the ground 
 /without your Father." 
 
 A position of great honour must be given to Darwin 
 for the painstaking industry with which he accumu- 
 lated an immense number of interesting facts relating 
 to the causes which produce modifications in plants 
 and animals, and which may be supposed to have 
 been used by the Creator, in producing varieties ; yet 
 he himself seems to have considered his great claim to 
 honour to be, not his accurate and valuable observa- 
 tions, but his insistence on the capacity of a law of 
 nature to accomplish all that theologians ascribed to 
 Divine Intelligence. All the power and wisdom of all 
 the philosophers who have ever lived multiplied together 
 cannot be compared with the power and wisdom ascribed 
 to Natural Selection ; and it must be noted that Natural 
 Selection always aims at improvement, and the produc- 
 tion of higher and higher forms. Huxley had good 
 reason to say: "The 'Origin' provided us with the 
 working hypothesis we wanted. Moreover, it did the 
 immense service of freeing us for ever from the dilemma, 
 1 Refuse to accept the creation hypothesis, and what 
 have you to propose that can be accepted by any cautious 
 reasoner ? ' In 1857 I had no answer ready, and I do 
 not think that anyone else had. A year later we 
 reproached ourselves with dulness for being perplexed 
 by such an inquiry." A new term had been employed 
 
 O.M. H 
 
98 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 to take the place of the word God ; or, rather, terms 
 had been used in such a confusing manner that the 
 processes of construction were described by the same 
 term and invested with the same intelligence as the 
 Architect. 
 
 Huxley was convinced that only some omnipotent, 
 omniscient, all-pervading cause possessed of infinite 
 intelligence could account for the construction of the 
 universe and the production of species ; yet he was 
 determined to maintain his reputation as an agnostic 
 by refusing to admit any recognition of supernatural 
 agency. His spirit of independence, or pride, or self- 
 will, or obstinacy, or whatever it may be thought, 
 prompted him to refuse to accept or employ any of 
 the titles commonly used to signify the Supreme Being. 
 Such terms as Nature and Natural Selection enabled 
 him to gloze over the intellectual evasions revealed to 
 him by his conscience. 
 
 The evolution theory provides the best hypothesis 
 for establishing the unity of the organic as well as of 
 the inorganic world by connecting all phenomena in 
 a chain of mechanism, and so enabling us to under- 
 stand something of the methods employed by the 
 Creator to produce modifications of structure and to 
 adapt the various organisms to the conditions of 
 existence. It shows all organisms as originating from 
 a common material source, and as made by the operation 
 of causes still in action, and according to laws which 
 man can in some degree control. The gardener and 
 the breeder, as well as the engineer and the chemist, 
 are able to speak of their work as the result of scientific 
 
EVOLUTION. 99 
 
 knowledge because they employ methods taught them 
 by the Creator. 
 
 How, then, can anyone doubt the truth of the 
 evolution theory ? Why has it been denounced in 
 the strongest manner as opposed to reason and com- 
 mon sense, and as the enemy of morality and religion ? 
 All depends upon what is meant by evolution ; and the 
 different meanings attached to the word need to be 
 carefully distinguished. 
 
 When one speaks of the evolution of a tree from 
 its seed, or of the evolution of a duck from an egg, 
 he is referring to the development of the individual 
 organism, and is stating a fact which is unquestionable ; 
 so that it would be absurd to deny the truth of evolu- 
 tion, and the doubter would be naturally regarded as 
 extremely ignorant or stupid. This use of the word 
 evolution is quite misleading, and is due to confusion of 
 thought. Individual growth from a special germ is a 
 natural law ; but the evolution theory denies the 
 existence of special germs. 
 
 Evolutionists deny all supernatural interferences, and 
 assert that all things have originated from primitive 
 nebulosity by the action of blind and unconscious 
 agencies or natural laws ; without any design or 
 Designer ; and though this is utterly irrational, it is 
 the theory accepted by Spencer and carried to absurdity 
 by Haeckel. Christians who profess to believe in 
 evolution either have no clear notion as to what they 
 believe, or mean by evolution a slow and gradual pro- 
 cess of creation by the continuous operation of the Grand 
 Architect, acting upon matter according to definite 
 
 H 2 
 
100 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 principles comparable to those employed by the 
 mechanic, the chemist, the gardener, and the breeder. 
 This is evolution in the sense necessary for the 
 employment of the hypothesis as a scientific theory. 
 
 In his work on "The Origin of Species," Darwin 
 said: "Therefore I cannot doubt that the theory 
 of descent with modification embraces all the members 
 of the same great class or kingdom. I believe that 
 animals are descended from at most only four or five 
 progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number." 
 This was simply the recognition of supernatural inter- 
 ferences and archetypal forms ; but the admitting of a 
 single supernatural interference is fatal to evolution as 
 a mechanical explanation of the universe, and is in 
 harmony with the theory of special creations by imper- 
 ceptible interferences. Darwin had no spiritual vision, 
 but had been taught by men who knew, and had enough 
 common sense to see, how preposterous it is to deny the 
 work of Supreme Intelligence ; so he says : " There is 
 grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, 
 having been originally breathed by the Creator into a 
 few forms or into one." Which was the one? Those 
 who do not know the Worker can find no starting point 
 or resting place. Anatomists can find no essential 
 difference between men and brutes, since man is a 
 spirit. 
 
 The evolutionist who wishes to account for all 
 phenomena by natural causes must refuse to admit 
 any special creations. The Creator must either be 
 recognised as working in all things or not at all. Hence 
 Darwin felt compelled to abandon the hypothesis of a 
 
EVOLUTION. IOI 
 
 few typical primitive forms, and to assume that there 
 has been continuous evolution by natural generation 
 from the unicellular organism to man ; for there is no 
 certain boundary between man and brutes to those who 
 ignore the Archetypal Man. 
 
 In " The Descent of Man " the conclusion arrived at 
 is : " He who is not content to look, like a savage, at 
 the phenomena of Nature as disconnected, cannot any 
 longer believe that man is the work of a separate act of 
 creation. He will be forced to admit that the close 
 resemblance of the embryo of man to that, for instance, 
 of a dog the construction of his skull, limbs and whole 
 frame on the same plan with that of other mammals, 
 independently of the uses to which the parts may be 
 put the occasional reappearance of various structures, 
 for instance of several muscles, which man does not 
 normally possess, but which are common to the quad- 
 rumana and a crowd of analogous facts all point in 
 the plainest manner to the conclusion that man is 
 the co-descendant with other mammals of a common 
 progenitor." 
 
 Reason, without intuition, cannot reach beyond the 
 conclusion that the human organism has arisen by 
 gradual transformation from ape-like ancestors. The 
 search for the material and efficient causes of man, 
 without any knowledge of the final and formal causes, 
 only succeeds in discovering a brute formed of pro- 
 toplasm. Darwin says : " We thus learn that man is 
 descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably 
 arboreal in its habits, and an inhabitant of the Old 
 World. This creature, if its whole structure had been 
 
102 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 examined by a naturalist, would have been classed 
 among the quadrumana, as surely as the still more 
 ancient progenitor of the Old and New World 
 monkeys." 
 
 Thus the evolution theory according to Darwin 
 teaches that the origin of man is by descent from 
 the brutes as truly and naturally as the origin of a 
 child is from his grandfather ; and that the nature 
 of man is merely the complex product of the natures 
 of all the animal forms through which he has passed in 
 his evolution. 
 
 " There was an ape in the days that were earlier : 
 Centuries passed, and his hair became curlier ; 
 Centuries more gave a thumb to his wrist ; 
 Then he was man, and a positivist." 
 
 The rationalist sees all as mechanism, and as nothing 
 more. The spirit, or the " pure reason," recognises 
 the Creative Mind by intuition. The Creator could 
 produce birds from reptiles, or men from apes ; but the 
 belief that Natural Selection, or evolution by any 
 natural processes, can produce new species, or can per- 
 manently improve any species, is delusion. 
 
 Science depends upon the permanence of order and 
 the continuity of law. The hypothesis of evolution 
 enables us to study all inorganic and organic bodies, all 
 plant and animal life, and all physical and mental 
 phenomena, as connected parts of one harmonious 
 design, proceeding from the simple to the complex 
 without apparent breach of continuity. The theory 
 embodies the most comprehensive conception of the 
 
EVOLUTION. 103 
 
 universe imaginable from a purely physical point of 
 view ; it suggests the possibility of explaining all 
 phenomena according to fixed or natural laws ; and it 
 emphasises the unity of nature by pointing out intimate 
 relationship and mutual dependence where nothing but 
 diversity and incongruity were formerly seen. It shows 
 that there is a grand design, formed and carried out by 
 the Creator, by laws and processes which man may 
 learn, and, in some degree, control. Man has been 
 specially created with capacity to learn the methods of 
 his Heavenly Father. 
 
 Darwin denied the Archetypal Man, and thus the 
 means of knowing anything of the Creator; yet he 
 was saddened and confounded to find himself inex- 
 tricably entangled with atheists. He saw plainly 
 enough the absurdity of supposing that a bird like the 
 woodpecker could ever have been produced from a fish 
 by changes of external conditions compelling the 
 exercise of organs in various ways to secure adaptation 
 to environment, as Lamarck and previous evolutionists 
 had assumed. Infinite Intelligence was needed for such 
 work ; but the evolutionist wished to avoid all reference 
 to the Creator. Even the use of the word " Provi- 
 dence " could not be allowed, and Nature, with a 
 capital, was too easily recognised as a substitute for 
 Providence. The Something possessed of intelligence, 
 wisdom, and power to plan and execute was called 
 Natural Selection. 
 
 It was not a case of jugglery with words where the 
 performer is able to catch the correct word when he 
 pleases. An established idea was clothed with a dress 
 
104 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 which did not fit, and which was continually changing 
 shape, so that Darwin lost himself in pursuit of it 
 among the immense mass of indefinite assumptions and 
 observed facts which he had accumulated. He was 
 never certain whether Natural Selection means the 
 Creator, working by and for the good of each being, 
 and " daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the 
 world, the slightest variations," or whether it means 
 the result of such scrutiny in the destruction of the 
 weak and the survival of the " fittest." At page 58 of 
 "The Origin of Species" he tries to define what he 
 means, and there he uses the term " Natural Selection " 
 as signifying the Survival of the Fittest. 
 
 Suppose a torpedo boat able to make a long tortuous 
 course, and to destroy a great number of objects 
 scattered over the course, and to exhibit a light of 
 different colour at each object, and to perform many 
 other purposive actions before returning to its starting- 
 point. Suppose all this to be effected by electric 
 power. Then suppose the boat to be named Electric 
 Power. It is evident that there cannot be a scientific 
 description of the work done until the mechanism and 
 the means of utilising electric power are understood. 
 On the Darwinian principle the name " Electric 
 Power" is used to signify not only the boat, but also 
 its constructor ; and everything that is accomplished 
 is ascribed to the boat as if it has invented itself and 
 works independently, which it does in a limited sense. 
 When it is asserted that there is no design, and no 
 interference by a designer and controller, but that 
 " Electric Power " as the boat has all the intelligence 
 
EVOLUTION. 105 
 
 in itself, one is naturally inclined to denounce such a 
 theory as irrational and absurd. Then the Darwinian 
 asks in surprise, " Do you not believe in electric power ? " 
 
 Man can construct automata capable of performing 
 so many complex purposive actions that the simple 
 find it difficult to avoid believing that the machine can 
 plan for itself ; and the work of the Creator is, of course, 
 infinitely more complicated and clever than that of 
 man. The Creator has formed organic bodies so 
 imbued with elements of mind that it is impossible to 
 distinguish definitely when they are exercising inde- 
 pendent volition, and when they are merely responding 
 as automata to external or internal stimuli. Tests must 
 be provided for the highest spiritual capacity of man, as 
 well as for his highest physical and mental capacity; 
 and no one with sound spiritual sense is ever deceived 
 by displays of animal intelligence, so as to fancy that 
 the brute is really capable of communing with the 
 human spirit in meditating upon origins. 
 
 Those who refuse to recognise the Creator are 
 abandoned to delusion, and to believe a lie, even though 
 they may possess great intellectual ability. The notion 
 that plants and animals have inherent purpose of 
 improving their species is as great a delusion as the 
 notion that a torpedo-boat plans its own movements. 
 There is no such thing as improvement of species by a 
 law of the survival of the fittest ; though there are 
 automatic laws designed to prevent the extinction 
 of species. An animal may be capable of being 
 taught to imitate many acts of man, or to perform 
 tricks, since the power of man to form dead mechanism 
 
106 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 into automata can produce more wonderful results 
 when applied to the plastic material of animal intelli- 
 gence ; yet the animals most highly trained quickly 
 revert to their original state when left to the care of 
 natural selection and survival of the fittest. 
 
 Natural selection as a natural law must be compared 
 to the law of gravitation, and is not comparable to an 
 intelligent being. We might as well expect gravitation 
 to select pebbles of various colours rolling down a hill 
 so as to form them into special patterns, as expect 
 natural selection to make improvements in species. A 
 mass of rock falling on a fruit-bearing tree will destroy 
 it ; and a strong animal fighting with a weaker one will 
 destroy it. The evolutionist says that what survives 
 is fittest to survive. 
 
 All the eloquent descriptions of the efforts of animals 
 to become attractive to each other so as to make 
 sexual selection satisfactory are founded on delusion. 
 There is no such thing as sexual selection among 
 animals. The influence of the decorations of the male 
 and the blandishments of the female exists only in the 
 imagination of the human observer. The bull does 
 not select the white cows, or the red cows, or the cows 
 of graceful form ; and the cows care nothing which of 
 two competing bulls is conqueror. All generations of 
 any species of animal go through the same movements 
 in response to the same stimuli without thought of 
 selecting or accumulating the useful or the good. 
 
 The Creator selects ; and man selects ; but there is 
 no other selection for the improvement of plant or 
 animal. The Creator selects according to laws and 
 
EVOLUTION. IO7 
 
 rules, so that man as gardener or breeder may be able 
 to imitate Him. When mere law is at work, as in 
 flood, or earthquake, or pestilence, does any one believe 
 that the fittest survive ? 
 
 Did the law of the survival of the fittest produce 
 sheep ? If primitive man produced sheep by selection 
 he must have been endowed with much greater mental 
 ability than his modern critics. 
 
 The Almighty may have created, or produced, or 
 evolved species from pre-existing species by paralysing 
 some regions and stimulating others ; and if man can 
 graft one part of an animal upon another we must 
 recognise the power of the Creator to perform work 
 infinitely more extraordinary. Some years ago the 
 thyroid gland was regarded as a useless remnant, liable 
 to degenerate and enlarge so as to produce goitre. The 
 gland was removed by a surgeon, and the patient was 
 soon becoming a myxedematous imbecile. It was 
 proved that the little mass of substance, apparently of no 
 use, controls not only physical growth, but also intelli- 
 gence. Thus the Creator, by imperceptible influence 
 on one little insignificant part of the body, can alter all. 
 
 The pineal gland is a little body about the size 
 of a pea attached to the brain as if of little 
 importance ; and an ancient tradition assigned this as 
 the seat of the soul. Jocular anatomists mentioned 
 this tradition as an example of the ignorance and folly 
 of our ancestors, and the soul was said to be located in 
 a portion of the body of no use for any other purpose. 
 Now the pineal gland is said to be the atrophied 
 remains of a third eye centrally situated ; though its 
 
108 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 function has not yet been discovered. Another little 
 body attached to the brain beneath is the pituitary 
 body, which is not even given the name of gland ; yet 
 it has recently been found that there is some mysterious 
 relation between an affection of this structure and 
 enlargement of the bones of the limbs and face. There 
 is even reason to believe that the state of the pituitary 
 body determines whether a child shall grow into a giant 
 or be a dwarf. Methods for the production of pig- 
 mies or giants seem to be almost within human 
 grasp, and they may have been known in the East 
 thousands of years ago ; but they must be regarded as 
 revelations of the ease with which the Creator can 
 mould protoplasm to modify animals as He pleases. 
 The evolutionist does not see the Designer behind the 
 responses of the sensitive protoplasm. 
 
 Darwinism teaches that man is an animal, and is 
 nothing more than an animal highly evolved. All 
 religion is founded on the knowledge that man is a 
 spirit, specially created with capacity to investigate his 
 nature and origin, and thus distinguished from all mere 
 animals. 
 
 The two special dogmas of Darwinism are that 
 Natural Selection, as blind unconscious force, is able 
 to work with greater intelligence than that possessed 
 by the most intelligent breeder, and that man is nothing 
 but a highly-evolved animal. No teacher with clear 
 intelligence and sound reasoning powers believes either 
 of these dogmas. Anyone who fancies he believes 
 them misunderstands the meaning of words. 
 
 It is easy to accept Natural Selection as able to 
 
EVOLUTION. IO9 
 
 produce species, if we admit that the words signify 
 the Creator. Darwin compares Natural Selection 
 to selection by a breeder producing modifications in 
 animals ; and he confounds the process of selecting 
 with the agent employing the process, and with the 
 work done in weeding out the defective. He becomes 
 so bewildered among the different meanings he gives to 
 the words that he says Natural Selection means the 
 Survival of the Fittest, which may be one of the results 
 of its action. He admits that the supposition that 
 unconscious external conditions could ever produce a 
 new species is preposterous ; and the supposition that 
 Natural Selection, when it means something that is 
 acting as a natural law, like gravitation, can do 
 intelligent work is utterly preposterous. 
 
 The clear intelligence of Huxley asserted itself even 
 when he fancied himself an agnostic and a Darwinian. 
 He says: "Our reverence for the nobility of manhood 
 will not be lessened by the knowledge that man is, in 
 substance and in structure, one with the brutes ; for he 
 alone possesses the marvellous endowment of intelli- 
 gible and rational speech, whereby, in the secular 
 period of his existence, he has slowly accumulated and 
 organised the experience which is almost wholly lost 
 with the cessation of every individual life in other 
 animals ; so that, now, he stands raised upon it, as 
 on a mountain top, far above the level of his humble 
 fellows, and transfigured from his grosser nature by 
 reflecting, here and there, a ray from the infinite source 
 of truth." 
 
 Speech is here described as an endowment, and even 
 
110 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 as a marvellous endowment ; but an endowment neces- 
 sarily pre-supposes someone capable of bestowing it. 
 
 We find an infinite source of truth recognised behind 
 the blind force, and man becomes transfigured from his 
 grosser nature by reflecting rays from "the infinite 
 source of truth." A writer on theology might express 
 the same idea by saying that man is made superior to 
 his animal nature by communion with God. 
 
 The writer is careful to point out that it is in sub- 
 stance and in structure that man is one with the brutes ; 
 and this is only what cannibals in all ages have believed 
 and proved. It is the spirit which is the peculiar 
 characteristic of man. No animal, and least of all an 
 ape, affords companionship to the spirit of man when 
 he is gazing with profound emotion on the beauties of 
 a sunset, or when pondering on his own nature and 
 origin. 
 
 At page 153 of " Man's Place in Nature " we find the 
 emphatic assertion: "No man is more strongly con- 
 vinced than I am of the gulf between civilised man and 
 the brutes, or is more certain that, whether from them 
 or not, he is assuredly not of them. No one is less 
 disposed to think lightly of the present dignity, or 
 despairingly of the future hopes, of the only consciously 
 intelligent denizen of this world." 
 
 The agnostic does not profess to know whether man 
 was derived from the brutes or not by the process of 
 evolution. The philosopher is quite certain that man 
 is something totally distinct from the brutes. How 
 did he get this distinction ? Was there a special 
 creation ? There is emphatic denial of the oneness of 
 
EVOLUTION. Ill 
 
 human and brute nature, though science cannot demon- 
 strate essential structural differences, or even an absolute 
 intellectual line of demarcation. 
 
 What are the future hopes of man ? Does it matter 
 to us whether the denizens of this world are giants or 
 dwarfs a thousand years hence if we have no existence ? 
 There is no such thing as future hope except as the 
 result of belief in immortality. Huxley never told his 
 scientific friends all that he thought about future hope. 
 The soul is outside the domain of physical science ; 
 and yet the testimony of the spirit is the sure ground 
 of certainty. To the agnostic, and to the mere anato- 
 mist, brutes are the humble fellows of man ; to the 
 philosopher, man is the only consciously intelligent 
 being on earth. 
 
 It is folly to attempt to place any limit to the time 
 occupied by the Creator in forming the earth, or in 
 preparing it for life, or in creating the varieties of 
 plants and animals. The geological record may be in 
 millions of years ; but the human mind can form no 
 conception of such time. There is evidence of gradual 
 progression, which may be called evolution ; but each 
 new species was produced by special interference of the 
 Creator. Prophets in all ages have recognised the 
 Archetypal Man, and have consequently been certain 
 that the first man was created perfect in body and 
 mind. There is a ground of certainty which cannot 
 be explained, and which the Darwinian cannot 
 comprehend. 
 
 Belief in the creation by evolution of all plants and 
 animals has no bearing whatever on any question ot 
 
112 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 religion so long as the special creation of man is admitted. 
 Evolutionists objecting to Christianity always mean by 
 the term " evolution " the production of man from 
 animals by natural descent. 
 
 Is the doctrine that man was created perfect incon- 
 sistent with facts ? Does the theory that man is a pro- 
 duct of evolution from animals by natural descent 
 explain facts more satisfactorily ? 
 
 Darwinians say that man required hundreds of thou- 
 sands, or millions, of years to attain his present state ; 
 and geology is said to prove that he has been upon the 
 earth for a very long period. If this is so we might 
 reasonably expect to find many fossil remains of animals 
 resembling man ; yet such remains are very rare, and 
 when found are of doubtful age. Evolution requires us 
 to believe that there were an infinite number of animals 
 more nearly resembling man than any existing anthro- 
 poid ape ; so that there might be a vast number of such 
 remains liable to be mistaken for those of man. Thus 
 it is important to know what constitutes a man. A 
 chimpanzee may be taught many tricks by man ; but 
 there is an impassable gulf between them until the 
 chimpanzee learns to be interested in its nature and 
 origin. 
 
 If human remains were found in definite geological 
 strata there would be evidence of antiquity ; and yet 
 even in that case it would be necessary to know the 
 history of the rock and the probability of cave burial. 
 There is not constancy in the conditions which deter- 
 mine geological changes. Increase in the number and 
 activity of coral polyps would cause the rapid filling of 
 
EVOLUTION. 113 
 
 a part of the ocean by calcareous rock, and the conse- 
 quent overflow of the displaced water at some other 
 part of the earth's surface. The Glacial Period seems 
 to indicate a sudden subsidence of much of Europe and 
 Asia beneath the waters of the Arctic Ocean, and 
 upheaval again after a brief period. 
 
 Attempts have been made to estimate the age of 
 cave-fossils by the size of stalactites and stalagmites, 
 and by the thickness of calcareous deposits. Thus we 
 may find that a crust is forming at the rate of one inch 
 in ten thousand years, and it seems simple and reason- 
 able to calculate that a layer of a foot in thickness 
 indicates an age of more than one hundred thousand 
 years for any fossils found beneath. Further knowledge 
 shows that there may be no deposit whatever at one 
 period, and yet a little change in the water, due to the 
 breaking up of a new route by a flood, or to a change 
 in the nature of the soil traversed, or to a change in the 
 gas dissolved, may cause the formation of deposit at 
 the rate of ten feet in a century. A slight variation in 
 the angle at which calcareous water falls has been found 
 to wear away deposit previously formed. 
 
 The determination of the antiquity of human fossil 
 remains is a most fascinating and important subject, but 
 what is emphatically asserted by one observer may be 
 regarded as quite erroneous by another ; so that a com- 
 mittee of scientific men and lawyers of independent 
 views ought to meet to consider all evidence. For a 
 time the skull found at Neanderthal was famous as 
 proof that man was an ape-like animal in former 
 times ; whereas it is now thought of no more value as 
 
 o.m. I 
 
114 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 evidence than a skull dug up from any ancient graveyard 
 would be. 
 
 Little importance can be attached to remains found 
 in river-drift, since a single flood may bury men and 
 animals beneath a mass of debris which in a few centuries 
 might be so altered by infiltration of ferruginous or 
 chalky water that no one could estimate the date of 
 the catastrophe. The remains found at Kent's Hole, 
 near Torquay, are supposed by some geologists to 
 indicate that England was populated long prior to the 
 Biblical records; so that much attention has been 
 attracted to this particular proof of man's antiquity. 
 There is good reason to suppose that Kent's Hole was 
 used as a place of refuge for fugitives, and also as a 
 burial place : while it was also liable to be filled by 
 drift. Roman implements and pottery have been found 
 among the contents of the cave in the upper deposits ; 
 while the earliest fossils may have been produced by 
 Egyptian raiders compelled to reside in the cave. We 
 may suppose a large collection of skeletons and imple- 
 ments, which in a few years would be covered over by 
 debris ; and succeeding fugitives would not be likely to 
 attempt to clear out the remains. 
 
 It seems a long time since the Romans came to 
 Britain ; and yet the Romans were modern residents 
 when compared to the inhabitants who were contem- 
 poraneous with the Babylonians. Thousands of years 
 before Rome was founded the earth was densely popu- 
 lated, not by ape-like men, but by men no less intel- 
 lectual than the modern man. There were no doubt 
 cave-men in Britain two thousand years ago, or two 
 
EVOLUTION. 115 
 
 hundred years ago ; and there are cave-dwellers in the 
 Canary Islands and many other places at the present 
 moment, but they may be the descendants of philoso- 
 phers such as Solomon and Socrates. Soldiers who took 
 part in the expedition against Sekukuni would doubt 
 the intelligence of anyone who should describe the 
 discovery of human remains in caves as extraordinary. 
 
 The inhabitants of Australia received a lesson a few 
 years ago on the rapidity with which changes may take 
 place in the surface of the earth. There were creeks 
 fifty feet deep with no water in them. Nobody living 
 had ever seen the high grounds flooded. Nobody 
 believed that they ever would be flooded. Any evidence 
 of flood on the elevated parts must apparently have 
 been produced by catastrophe in pre-historic times. 
 Then the dry gullies suddenly became seething torrents; 
 the empty creeks were transformed into mighty rivers 
 carrying all before them ; houses that had seemed 
 beyond the reach of any possible flood were swept 
 away ; and after the waters subsided the rotting bodies 
 of animals tainted the air. Any cavern in the course 
 of one of the creeks may have been filled with remains 
 of animals and debris of houses ; and many such floods 
 may have occurred during the past four thousand years. 
 In considering the origin of the remains in Kent's Hole 
 we need to imagine the flooded condition of many parts 
 of England during wet seasons in former times, when 
 there was no system of drainage. 
 
 Nothing seems simpler than to reckon that if one 
 inch of mud is deposited at the mouth of the Nile in 
 ten years, then more than fifty thousand years must 
 
 1 2 
 
Il6 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 have elapsed since fossils found at the depth of five 
 hundred feet were on the surface. The calculator 
 would be forgetting that the objects may have sunk 
 in the mud within a century ; and he would also be in 
 great error in supposing the rate of deposit to be uniform. 
 When the inland country was more elevated the flow 
 of the water must have been more rapid, and the 
 quantity of material carried away greater. The extent 
 over which the mud spread must have been greater, and 
 the depth of deposit less, when the flow was most rapid, 
 provided other conditions remained the same ; but if the 
 river was at one time confined by high banks, and the 
 overflow arrested by a bar at its mouth, the depth of 
 deposit would be enormous. At East London, in South 
 Africa, twelve feet of water at the mouth of the river 
 has been reduced to six by a single flood. Suppose a 
 dug-out canoe had been buried at the mouth of the 
 Buffalo, and covered in the course of a hundred years 
 by a hill thrown up by a change in the direction of the 
 river, and discovered after an interval of another hundred 
 years, it might have seemed a wonderfully ancient relic. 
 We can hardly realise that Sandwich was once an 
 important seaport, and that the Romans sailed across 
 the Isle of Thanet. 
 
 Ruins become buried in an astonishing manner without 
 the aid of rivers or seas; and few men have sufficient 
 education or imagination to project themselves over a 
 period of several thousand years so as to appreciate the 
 nature and the dates of changes. Walls built by the 
 Romans on high ground in London are now many feet 
 below the surface ; and explorers who have been trying 
 
EVOLUTION. 117 
 
 to unearth ancient Troy find evidence of a ruined town 
 which had become so deeply buried that another genera- 
 tion built above it, apparently without knowing that 
 their ancestors were beneath them. There may even 
 be several towns superimposed. The education of a 
 lifetime would be needed to enable us to form a fairly 
 accurate notion of the changes that took place between 
 the time of Abraham and that of Solomon ; while the 
 condition of the world a thousand years before Abraham 
 lived is utterly unknown, except that of a limited part 
 of Asia. 
 
 When bones of the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros 
 are found in a cave or in river-drift along with distinctly 
 human remains, as appears to have been the case, there 
 is the reasonable inference that all were in existence at 
 the same time. Then we need to learn when the 
 animals became extinct, so that we may know the 
 antiquity of man as proved by this evidence. It is 
 usual to suppose that these animals became extinct in 
 Europe many thousand years before the Christian era ; 
 but we can form no idea of the condition of Europe 
 even so late as the days of Moses, and the history of 
 South Africa proves how rapidly species of animals 
 may become extinct, even within a few years of their 
 existence in countless herds. Writers often forget that 
 there is no natural boundary between Europe and 
 Siberia, and India and Africa. They all are one in so 
 far as the original distribution of animal life is con- 
 cerned. The herds of elephants and mammoths and 
 rhinoceroses were as free to roam over Europe as over 
 India or Siberia. A few centuries would give ample 
 
Il8 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 time for them to exist in millions, and a much less 
 time would be sufficient for their disappearance. 
 When a severe winter in Europe compelled such 
 animals as elephants and rhinoceroses to seek shelter 
 in caves, and prevented their reaching pasture in a 
 warmer climate, there would naturally be a great 
 accumulation of their skeletons. Under favourable 
 conditions for breeding there might be many millions 
 of reindeer or giraffes in Europe within two centuries. 
 
 Lake Dwellings in Switzerland and Kitchen Middens 
 in Scandinavia have been regarded by Darwinians as 
 proving both the vast antiquity of man and his descent 
 from an inferior species. When a tribe is beaten in 
 war, and driven from the highlands, it is only natural 
 for the fugitives to take refuge in swamps and forests 
 and to build as best they can. The Lake Dwellings 
 of Switzerland were merely such as exist at present at 
 Singapore and other places, and simply prove the 
 superior intelligence of the builders. If a man wishes 
 to live by fishing in a lake, and is afraid of enemies on 
 shore, he will do well to make his dwelling somehow 
 on the water. The people of Amsterdam found the 
 site of their town convenient for trade, and built it on 
 the tops of very large piles, so that a slight subsidence 
 would make it a city of fossils ; and it would possibly 
 be at present a remarkable example of a submerged 
 lake city, built by men supposed to be deficient in 
 intelligence, if the Rhine had not been brought under 
 control by French engineers by command of Napoleon 
 Bonaparte. 
 
 Herodotus mentions that Xerxes was resisted in his 
 
EVOLUTION. 119 
 
 march by a Thracian tribe who lived in dwellings raised 
 upon wooden framework in the centre of the lake. In 
 some lakes of Central Africa the formation of a village 
 upon piles some distance from the shore is the best plan 
 to prevent surprise by slave-hunters, and is evidence of 
 the superior intelligence and enterprise of the people. 
 There are Lake Dwellings, or rather River Dwellings, 
 at the mouth of the Mississippi ; but any philosopher 
 studying the inhabitants as specimens of the savage 
 would need to take credentials of sanity with him. 
 
 The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland have been 
 described by Darwinians as pre-historic. What is 
 meant by pre-historic ? Roman coins and pottery 
 have been found in the ruins. To the ancient Egyptians 
 the history of Rome would be very modern. One of 
 the Lake Villages is found to have passed through 
 changes of fortune. There are a succession of plat- 
 forms, and evidence that some platforms have been 
 burnt. Suppose that when Caesar was trying to conquer 
 Europe a Lake Village made resistance, it was very likely 
 to be burnt, and stone weapons and arrow-heads would 
 of course be found in the ruins. Ten years after this 
 the Lake Dwellings may have been all re-built ; and 
 ten years later they may have been again destroyed. 
 Later still the inhabitants may have been annihilated, 
 and their methods of preventing submergence destroyed. 
 The whole history may not have occupied one century. 
 
 Kitchen Middens have been described as proof of the 
 savage condition of pre-historic man ; but they are 
 merely the mounds of refuse that are naturally found 
 where a large number of people have to live chiefly on 
 
120 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 shell-lish. When a tribe was defeated and driven out 
 of their country, the wanderers must have rejoiced on 
 arriving on the coast of a quiet sea where there was an 
 abundant supply of oysters and other shell-fish. 
 Mounds of shells were soon formed ; and bones of 
 animals were often thrown upon the shell mound. 
 The common man would think this as natural as the 
 existence of sardine-tins at an abandoned gold-mine ; 
 but the Darwinian philosopher was surprised to find 
 that the bones had been broken in order to extract the 
 marrow. The manner in which the bones were broken 
 has been seriously discussed as having important 
 bearing on the savage state of the pre-historic man : 
 as if the mode of breaking bones and eating marrow 
 varies with the centuries. If modern philosophers were 
 placed on an uninhabited island without implements of 
 any kind they would suddenly belong to the Miocene 
 Period, in so far as the employment of stones to extract 
 marrow from bones is concerned ; and they might date 
 back as far as their very remotest human ancestors 
 when judged by the quality of the flint axes and arrow- 
 heads they would make. The greatest Kitchen Midden 
 of all time might soon be formed at the mouth of the 
 Thames if there was no market for the cockle-shells. 
 
 The people who left the mounds of shells are said to 
 have been far more ancient than those who built the 
 monuments called Dolmens, because implements of 
 bronze and iron have been found in the Dolmens and 
 not in the Kitchen Middens. By this mode of reason- 
 ing we should prove that the cockle-merchants at the 
 mouth of the Thames are far more ancient than their 
 
EVOLUTION. 121 
 
 farmer grandfathers. The wanderers who were com- 
 pelled to subsist for a time upon shell-fish, and other 
 food available to those without permanent home, may 
 have been the children of princes who had possessed 
 magnificent palaces before their defeat in war. 
 
 The Stone Age, the Metal Age, the Dolmen Age, the 
 Cave-Man Age, and other such so-called Ages, are 
 merely expressions of our notions of the conditions and 
 customs of a people at some unknown period of their 
 history. The Palaeolithic savage of the Darwinian may 
 have been the lineal descendant of Abraham or Homer. 
 Brave exiles compelled by necessity to live on shell-fish 
 and to employ stone weapons are described as savages 
 in the process of evolving. The children of the mighty 
 warriors of great empires when driven to the woods had 
 to revert to the primitive arrow tipped with flint ; and 
 whenever men have to begin life afresh without assist- 
 ance from their ancestors they must adopt the stone 
 axe and chisel, which seem so ancient and wonderful 
 when described as celts. 
 
 Man, no doubt, had to progress from the use of stone 
 implements to the use of metal, and from the use of 
 bronze to the manufacture of steel ; but such progress 
 has no relation whatever to progress in intelligence. 
 The farmer of the backwoods, or the Boer trekker, who 
 has no metal tool, and who can make a thoroughly 
 reliable waggon without the aid of metal, is far superior 
 in intelligence to the city critic who is helpless without 
 the steel instruments supplied by a manufacturer. It is 
 utterly absurd to divide the history of any people 
 according to a scale of intelligence determined by their 
 
122 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 employment of stone, or copper, or iron. There are 
 tribes in Africa at the present moment using primitive 
 stone implements, though their ancestors in Egypt were 
 the most skilled workers in metal when the inhabitants 
 of England were using stone weapons and tools. Those 
 who had no sound knowledge fancied that the ancients 
 were far inferior in knowledge of metals, until a few 
 years ago it was found that they had been able to chisel 
 stone which was too hard for ordinary English steel. 
 Every group of emigrants compelled to stand alone with 
 Nature must adopt the same original methods of work- 
 ing and fighting, and go through the same stages of 
 progress ; but it is preposterous to suppose that the 
 man with the worst tools is therefore inferior in natural 
 ability. 
 
 Modern education and civilisation tend to leave a man 
 ignorant of his relative impotence. A French traveller 
 recently attempted to visit Thibet in order to seek for 
 the " missing link." Such is the result of Darwinism. It 
 is supposed that the European is the most highly evolved 
 being, and that some of the inhabitants of other countries 
 must be mere apes in process of evolving. The French- 
 man did not know that Central Asia was peopled by 
 men of the highest intelligence some thousands of years 
 before the Romans tried to civilise the savages of France 
 and England. 
 
 A carpenter taught to believe in Darwinism was 
 greatly astonished by a visit to Rouen Cathedral, and 
 exclaimed, " Well, I'm blessed ! How on earth did men 
 do that work without our education and machinery ? " 
 He would have been more surprised if he had been 
 
EVOLUTION. 123 
 
 capable of appreciating the work of the artists of Perse- 
 polis, and the vastness of the interval between their age 
 and that of the artists of Rouen. The notion of modern 
 superiority is only possible to those incapable of under- 
 standing the past, or to those provided by others with 
 the means of living in idleness. The genuine worker 
 realises the difficulty of the task ; while the critic, 
 unable to support himself, thinks he is superior to his 
 ancestors. The more we study history the more we 
 must become convinced that the men of the present day 
 are in no respect superior in natural ability to those who 
 lived thousands of years ago. The British Museum 
 furnishes abundant proof that Darwinism is the opposite 
 of the truth ; for the ancients were able by natural 
 ability to accomplish the finest artistic and the most 
 stupendous engineering work, without the aid which the 
 accumulated knowledge of the ages has provided for 
 the modern worker. 
 
 The strong pioneer who has made a garden in the 
 wilderness is often anxious that his son shall possess 
 more extensive knowledge of books and of fashionable 
 life than could be acquired by one compelled to spend 
 his time in conquering the earth by physical toil ; but 
 the son may only learn some fashionable vices, and may 
 then despise his father, to whose superior ability he 
 owes everything that distinguishes him from an ignorant 
 savage. We ought at least to try to feel thankful to 
 our primitive ancestors who by their labour made it 
 possible for us to exist as civilised beings. The ancient 
 Hebrews cultivated music, and the modern child may 
 despise their work ; but what scholar can imagine how 
 
124 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 music originated, or tell its relation to the spiritual 
 ideas on which it was founded ? We give praise to a 
 man who improves the breed of sheep or cattle ; but we 
 do not try to realise how much we owe to the intelli- 
 gence and ability of those who gave us horses, and 
 cattle, and sheep, and dogs, and cats. We should still 
 be poor savages if we had not been provided with such 
 things by the superior intellect and energy of the despised 
 primitive man. 
 
 Various species are said to have originated and to 
 have been preserved according to the law of the survival 
 of the fittest. Was man fit to survive as an animal of 
 evolution ? We must suppose that primitive man was 
 like a variety of gorilla, able to contend on equal terms 
 with lions and tigers ; and that he became smooth- 
 skinned and feeble by indulging in luxury and warm 
 clothing. How did he get the chance of improving 
 himself? Why did he improve ? No animal acquires 
 greater skill than its ancestors. The ant and the 
 elephant are the same in all ages, and were as able to 
 adapt themselves to conditions five thousand years ago 
 as they are to-day ; but for man blind chance permitted 
 the quiet life of ease necessary for the development of 
 reflective consciousness and a tender skin. Why did 
 chance cause the primeval monsters to die off, and to 
 be replaced by sheep and cattle before the appearance 
 of man ? The megalosaurians are believed to have 
 been carnivorous animals, about forty feet in length and 
 of enormous bulk ; and if such animals had been 
 prowling about, the naked creature would have been 
 afraid to put his head outside his cave. 
 
EVOLUTION. 125 
 
 Darwinism invites us to believe that the history of 
 mankind is the history of progress from a " hairy, tailed 
 quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits," to the 
 positive evolutionist. We know as a certainty that the 
 Babylonians and Egyptians of five thousand years ago 
 were quite equal, if not superior, in intellect to the men 
 of the present time. Thus the Darwinian has a simple 
 calculation to make. If there is no evolution in five 
 thousand years, how many years will be needed to 
 evolve a man from apes ? Darwin says : " Even slow- 
 breeding man has doubled in twenty-five years, and 
 at this rate, in less than a thousand years, there 
 would literally not be standing-room for his progeny." 
 Explorations in the East confirm the teaching of history 
 that the earth was densely populated five thousand 
 years ago with men of the highest type; while the 
 further history of the race shows a continual effort of 
 the great original Hebrew teachers to preserve mankind 
 from degradation and destruction towards which they 
 are always tending. History proves degeneration, not 
 evolution. 
 
 Some accounts have recently been published of the 
 work of Professor Hilprecht, who commenced his 
 excavations at Nippur in 1888, and has dug through the 
 ruins of many cities built one upon another. He has 
 unearthed the great Temple of Bel and a library of 
 23,000 tablets ; and he says that the contents of the 
 tablets will altogether change our ideas of the world as 
 to the state of civilisation and knowledge of that early 
 people that is, on the supposition that our ideas are 
 at present founded on Darwinism, They knew then 
 
126 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 (2,300 B.C.) that the earth is a globe ; and their 
 astronomers took the same view of celestial phenomena 
 that we take now, and were able to make the most 
 minute calculations. of the places and movements of the 
 stars. 
 
 Language is said to have evolved, and in one sense 
 this is true, since it has to grow with the increase of 
 knowledge ; but it needed foundation thoughts upon 
 which to grow. If a number of savages ignorant of 
 speech were isolated in a community they could not 
 produce a permanent language ; for everyone would 
 employ peculiar and arbitrary signs or sounds, and 
 there would be no fundamental agreement. Even the 
 English language is preserved by the permanent 
 influence of thoughts clothed in words by the genius of 
 the ancients ; and without this central control the 
 inhabitants of England would in a few generations be 
 divided into many tribes unable to understand one 
 another. Slang is always threatening to destroy the 
 language and divide the empire, and hence the necessity 
 of compelling every English child to be familiarised 
 with the same fundamental books, such as the Bible, 
 the Pilgrim's Progress, and Shakespeare. 
 
 There is no higher authority on the history of language 
 than Max Miiller, and his testimony is that, " As far as 
 we can trace back the footsteps of man, even in the 
 lowest strata of history, we see that the Divine gift of a 
 sound and sober intellect belonged to him from the 
 very first ; and the idea of a humanity emerging slowly 
 from the depths of an animal brutality can never be 
 maintained again. The earliest work of art wrought by 
 
EVOLUTION. 127 
 
 the human mind more ancient than any literary 
 document, and prior even to the first whisperings of 
 tradition the human language forms an uninterrupted 
 chain from the first dawn of history down to our own 
 times. We still speak the language of the first 
 ancestors of our race ; and this language, with its 
 wonderful structure, bears witness against such un- 
 hallowed imputations." 
 
 Evolutionists teach that the sense of duty and moral 
 feeling were originated by Natural Selection acting 
 upon the social instincts of animals; and that ethics, 
 and morality, and religion have slowly evolved, and are 
 going on in evolution. Has the ape a very much 
 higher moral ideal than the pigeon, which is said to be 
 millions of years lower in the scale of evolution ? The 
 moral difference between pigeons and apes would seem 
 to indicate that Natural Selection must be blind force. 
 
 One might as well speak of the evolution of geometry 
 as of the evolution of ethics. The principles are fixed 
 and eternal ; and man merely makes fresh applications 
 of them, as conditions become more complex, and his 
 knowledge enables him to take wider views. The 
 constructor of a building may know little of mathe- 
 matics, but when any part of the work offends against 
 mathematical principles it has to be corrected in order to 
 save it from destruction. The line from the zenith to 
 the level on earth is always a right angle. There can 
 be no evolution to truth ; and there is no other 
 foundation for ethics. The everlasting and unchanging 
 standard is seen to be the same by the honest builder 
 of every age 
 
128 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. * 
 
 Rhetoricians and slaves of words may fail to see the 
 revelation which Nature gives by symbol and allegory ; 
 but every thinker emancipated from words recognises 
 the compass and square as symbols of duty and morality, 
 and knows that they always have been and always will 
 be the same, though myriads of millions of years be 
 invoked to make evolution in them appear possible. 
 The moral standard is always the same : it is man's 
 depravity that varies, and the circumstances to which 
 the standard is applied. Except in so far as Christ 
 has made the truth plainer, all the advantages gained 
 by the experience of generations have not enabled 
 the modern man to imagine a higher standard of 
 morality than was adopted by Adam, and Abraham, 
 and Job. 
 
 There is no higher law than that given by Moses, 
 which Christ alone fulfilled. In Leviticus we find it 
 expressly commanded, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
 as thyself;" while in Deuteronomy there is the com- 
 mand to love God with all our heart, soul, and might. 
 What has the evolutionist to add to this ? Englishmen 
 have some reason to be proud of their Society for 
 Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but the Hebrews 
 demanded something more than the prevention of 
 cruelty ; the practice of kindness was implied in the 
 command, "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he 
 treadeth out the corn." Moses would have punished 
 the man who yokes a rusty horse with a willing one. 
 
 The distinguishing feature of Biblical history is its 
 truthfulness ; and thus it is the only history worth 
 studying by anyone who is trying to discover the 
 
EVOLUTION. 129 
 
 principles of spiritual law. Lack of truthfulness makes 
 modern history worthless for this purpose. Who would 
 dare to write as plainly of the misdeeds of a modern 
 king, and to show as clearly the result of his sin, as the 
 Bible does ? Who would be able to estimate without 
 prejudice the justice or injustice of a war ? Precautions 
 are taken to prevent the publication of the truth until 
 after the death of all those specially interested in 
 learning it ; and the friends of the criminals are able to 
 suppress the memoirs that would enlighten the public. 
 
 It has been said that we have more regard for the 
 sanctity of human life than the ancients had. There 
 is no doubt that Christianity has arrested moral 
 degeneration ; but the man without Christianity was 
 never more a savage bloodthirsty fiend than at the 
 present moment. Is human life in Armenia sacred ? 
 Did European soldiers regard the sanctity of human 
 life in China ? Even a great Christian ruler is said to 
 have ordered his soldiers to give no quarter to the 
 unfortunate Chinamen falling into their hands. In the 
 early stages of the Boer war there was admiration in 
 Christian England for the officer who charged the 
 Christian Boers with the cry, " Exterminate the ver- 
 min ! " Restraint was not due to superior moral 
 nature, but to clearer exposure in contrast with the 
 Ideal men profess to accept. 
 
 Human life was never so sacred, and conscience was 
 never so sensitive, as at the beginning of history, 
 when the murderer of his brother was left to the pangs 
 of conscience as the greatest possible punishment. 
 
 It is said that infants were murdered in ancient 
 
 O.M. K 
 
130 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 times, whereas now they are specially cherished. Is it 
 true ? Some thousands of years ago children were 
 regarded as special gifts of God, and a birth was an 
 occasion of great rejoicing. How often in modern 
 times is there lamentation because the advent of an 
 infant interferes with selfish enjoyment ? Those who 
 see beneath the veneer of Christianity with which the 
 mass of the people are made to seem respectable know 
 that in France, and America, and England, there is 
 callous indifference to infant life except in so far as the 
 infant gratifies vanity, or ministers to social position, or 
 takes the place of an animal pet. 
 
 The history of religion is the record of a continual 
 struggle to prevent degeneration from a pure spiritual 
 worship to the lowest form of fetishism. In every 
 nation which has written records the earliest writings 
 are those treating of religion, and the purest ideas of 
 worship are the most ancient. No philosopher of any 
 age has provided the world with any system which can 
 replace that of the Hebrews for training the mind to 
 appreciate the most profound thought, and for satisfy- 
 ing the deepest longings of the soul. Whether we look 
 to the East or the West we find evidence of fall from 
 spiritual worship to idolatry, and a corresponding fall 
 from a higher civilisation, until the downward move- 
 ment has been arrested by the influence of Christianity, 
 which saves the modern European teacher from debasing 
 superstition. 
 
 Huxley, the great agnostic, was a profoundly religious 
 man ignorant of theology ; for even the great mass of 
 serious students in England receive no theological 
 
EVOLUTION. 131 
 
 education. The genuine thinker always feels the need 
 of religion ; and nothing but a lofty religious ideal 
 could have satisfied the earnest independent mind of 
 Huxley. Did he find it by the study of science, or of 
 evolution, or as the result of modern observation and 
 research ? He went to the Bible for it, and found it in 
 the saying of Micah : "And what doth the Lord require 
 of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to 
 walk humbly with thy God?" At page 161 of his 
 essays on "Science and Hebrew Tradition," he declares: 
 " If any so-called religion takes away from this great 
 saying of Micah, I think it wantonly mutilates, while, 
 if it adds thereto, I think it obscures the perfect ideal 
 of religion." 
 
 Where is there room for evolution if a Jew who lived 
 between two and three thousand years ago taught the 
 perfect ideal of religion, which all the giants of modern 
 science, with all their marvellous intellectual progress, 
 cannot possibly improve ? The acceptance of this 
 creed of Micah makes all Huxley's arguments in favour 
 of evolution and agnosticism mere food for the waste- 
 paper basket. 
 
 Does the theory of evolution agree with the worship 
 of justice and mercy ? In the struggle for existence 
 where is the justice ? In the law of the survival of the 
 fittest where is the mercy ? What is meant by God ? 
 Who is the Lord ? Did science or evolution teach the 
 agnostic that it is desirable to be humble ? There 
 must be no cultivation of humility in the struggle for 
 existence, but a crushing out of the weak by the 
 strong. 
 
 K2 
 
132 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 The foundation of all religion is Truth. Huxley 
 wished to be truthful ; yet he quoted Micah as a man 
 who had attained a higher conception of God than his 
 ancestors, as is required to bolster up the evolution 
 theory. David lived some centuries before Micah, and 
 Moses lived five hundred years before David, while 
 Abraham lived five hundred years before Moses. Now, 
 Micah did not pretend to be better than his fathers, 
 and he would have thought it blasphemy to profess to 
 worship any God but the God of Abraham and the 
 God of Adam. Theory and prejudice made the honest 
 critic blind to his ignorance of history. 
 
 Evolution is now a word in very common use by 
 those who have no clear notion of its meaning. 
 Preachers speak of the evolution of religion when they 
 mean the application of fixed principles to more and 
 more complex conditions. The word ought to signify 
 only the operation of fixed law, and not the results 
 of the reasonings and experiments of an intelligent 
 being. 
 
 Degraded and uneducated man could never gain for 
 himself a true idea of God, and could not possibly 
 evolve into a higher religious atmosphere. History 
 and experience prove that the degraded man never yet 
 became elevated except by assistance from without. 
 The highest ideal of religion could never have been 
 learned by mankind except in one way, and that was 
 by the intuition of a perfect mind in harmony with the 
 Archetypal Mind. Without the perfect First Adam 
 there would never have been religion, or philosophy, or 
 civilisation. 
 
EVOLUTION. 133 
 
 All religion has its essence in an open secret which 
 can never be penetrated by the mere physical investi- 
 gator; and yet he may be conscious that there is a 
 secret, and that it is most important. Huxley resem- 
 bled the courageous Esau, who felt that there was some 
 mysterious importance attached to his father's blessing, 
 though from a scientific point of view it did not seem 
 worth a mess of pottage. So long as material con- 
 siderations are kept in the foreground, and so long as 
 doubts are nursed rather than cursed, the agnostic 
 must seek in vain ; but when circumstances have pro- 
 duced docility of mind there is appreciation of the true 
 ideal of religion taught by primitive man. 
 
 Many great scholars who discuss religion are like 
 water-logged ships ; they are word-logged, so that 
 instead of using words to gain progress in thought, they 
 wallow among them aimless and helpless. Degenerate 
 Hebrews who had scholarship without spiritual know- 
 ledge thought that worshippers of Jehovah, the Elohim, 
 were merely worshipping a mighty King with human 
 limitations like Jupiter ; and there are modern scholars 
 who have so little knowledge of the meaning of the 
 Bible that they describe Jehovah, the Creator of the 
 heavens and the earth, as Jahveh, a local deity. There 
 is always a tendency to materialise and degrade our 
 conceptions of the Divine Mind, and to concentrate 
 attention upon the symbol, when we ought to look 
 beyond to the spiritual reality symbolised. The French 
 have not a peculiar national God because they worship 
 Dieu, nor the Moslems because they worship Allah ; 
 yet critics blinded by notions of evolution assume that 
 
134 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 the great nations of the past had inferior ideas of God 
 because they used an unfamiliar language, and wor- 
 shiped El, or Bel, or LOM. If a book should be 
 discovered in future ages in which the Supreme Being 
 was always referred to as A Power, or The Power, or 
 the Unknown Power, the people of this age might be 
 supposed remarkably low in the scale of religious 
 evolution ; apparently blind worshippers of the law of 
 gravitation, or of a flash of lightning, or of the movement 
 of the tide, or even of a runaway engine. 
 
135 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 evolution {continued). 
 
 Natural science teaches us that there has been 
 gradual progressive creation on a definite plan ; so that 
 man is able to some extent to trace the steps taken by 
 the Creator in the production of the universe. When 
 the chemist is building up complex bodies by means of 
 simple elements, or when the gardener is producing new 
 varieties of a plant, there is recognition of principles 
 established at the beginning. 
 
 Gradual progressive creation by successive modifica- 
 tions is what Darwin at first meant to teach as 
 evolution ; and he even assumed that a number of 
 typical primitive forms were brought into existence by 
 special creative acts. The evolution theory is now 
 commonly understood to signify the denial of all 
 supernatural interference in the production of the 
 universe, or in the government of it. The representative 
 evolutionist knows nothing of formal or final causes, 
 does not recognise the authority of the Designer over 
 His work, and cannot know Jehovah, the Personal 
 God. 
 
 The term Darwinism is commonly employed to 
 signify the assumption that man is as truly and naturally 
 descended from lower animals as from his grandfather, 
 
I36 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 and the further resulting assumption that some tribes 
 and nations are less fully evolved, or are lower in the 
 scale of humanity, than others. Thus the highly 
 evolved may plead some justification for treating the 
 less evolved as inferior animals. The nature of man 
 cannot be regarded by the Darwinian as definite and 
 fixed, but must be supposed to vary according to the 
 stage of evolution reached, and to be continually 
 changing. Belief in this theory of the origin and nature 
 of man depends upon parasitism, inexperience, and 
 ignorance. 
 
 One of the biographers of Darwin gives as the cause 
 of his distinction that he was "born of a cultured 
 scientific family, surrounded from his birth by elevating 
 influences, and secured beforehand from the cramping 
 necessity of earning his own livelihood by his own 
 exertions." Such are the conditions necessary for 
 belief in human evolution. The condition of society 
 which permits a man to obtain the necessaries of life by 
 the work of others develops a tendency in the parasite 
 to despise those who feed him. Place the evolutionist 
 where he is not surrounded by the elevating influences 
 provided by Christianity, and compel him to earn his 
 own living as a man in competition with other men, 
 and belief in Darwinism will, like Bob Acres' courage, 
 ooze out at the tips of his fingers. The Englishman 
 may believe that the Chinaman is on a lower plane of 
 evolution until he has to work beside him on equal 
 terms ; then he longs for some artificial protection. 
 
 A man with no notion of how much he owes to others 
 is naturally very much surprised at the inferiority of the 
 
EVOLUTION. 137 
 
 man who has had none of the advantages of civilised 
 life, or who has been cut off from them and compelled 
 to stand by himself. The hut of the Esquimaux has 
 been regarded as evidence of inferior evolution and 
 barbarism, whereas one ought to admire the men who 
 have been able to secure homes and independence in 
 the dreary Arctic regions. Darwin says, " The astonish- 
 ment which I felt on first seeing a party of Fuegians on 
 a wild and broken shore will never be forgotten by me, 
 for the reflection at once rushed into my mind, ' Such 
 were our ancestors.' " He might also have reflected 
 that such would be his own descendants in a few 
 generations if treated as the Fuegians had been. A 
 man who had worked as a man would have admired 
 the athletic forms, the hardiness of constitution, and 
 the courageous defiance of the hardships of the wild 
 shore ; but the artificial product of civilisation, with his 
 theory of his natural superiority in evolution, could only 
 see inferior creatures comparable to baboons. 
 
 Belief in Darwinism is in proportion to ignorance of 
 life under natural conditions. It was formerly supposed 
 by evolutionists that an inferior race, possibly with tails, 
 lived in New Zealand. A few wars with the Maories 
 proved it is safer to boast of superiority in the security 
 of an English study than on the field of battle ; and the 
 scientific world began to think that a Maori is a man. 
 There remained the consolation that the Negro may be 
 bullied and insulted with impunity ; and failure to resist 
 tyranny is the great evidence of lowness of type accord- 
 ing to modern teaching. The Zulus proved able, even 
 with their poor weapons, to inflict a defeat upon the 
 
I38 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 British armed with rifles ; and we had at once discus- 
 sions on the skull of the Zulu as being of an advanced 
 type. Hot-house philosophers would still have us fancy 
 that there are swamps or forests somewhere of whose 
 natives we are sufficiently ignorant to safely assume 
 that they are vastly inferior to us in evolution. 
 
 Hottentots have often been referred to as savages 
 barely emerged from the brute state ; but when the 
 Dutch first landed at the Cape the description of them 
 given by Captain Hoegsat was : " They were handsome, 
 active men, of particularly good stature, dressed in 
 ox-hides tolerably prepared, and carried gracefully on 
 one arm with an air as courageous as any brave in 
 Holland could carry his cloak on arm or shoulder." 
 They are also said to have been very polite to the 
 strangers ; while the house of the chief is described as 
 provided with mats very handsomely made. Instead of 
 evolving from a lower state, they have degenerated 
 owing to vices introduced by Europeans. Ignorant 
 residents of European cities often speak, or spoke 
 before the late war, with great contempt of inhabitants 
 of South Africa as filthy wretches who hardly ever 
 wash ; but those accustomed from infancy to use 
 sewers which they never see, and to find water by 
 turning a tap, are little better in some respects than 
 children in a nursery as compared with independent 
 men. 
 
 Darwin writes : " The Fuegians rank amongst the 
 lowest barbarians; but I was continually struck with 
 surprise how closely the three natives on board 
 H.M.S. Beagle, who had lived some years in England, 
 
EVOLUTION. 139 
 
 and could talk a little English, resembled us in dis- 
 position and in most of our mental faculties." The 
 evolution theory would have made him quite blind to 
 the superior airs of the Hottentots ; and if he had 
 travelled among the Bechuanas he would have seen 
 them as ape-like men, degraded in their habits, and 
 slowly emerging from an animal condition : apparently 
 unable to count beyond four, and with a language con- 
 sisting of a few simple sounds, incapable of expressing 
 delicate shades of thought, because there were no ab- 
 stract thoughts to express. 
 
 Livingstone stood on the earth as a man ; and con- 
 sequently he knew men when he saw them, and met 
 them as fellows. He says of the Bechuanas : " They 
 were stupid in matters which did not come within the 
 sphere of their observation, but in other things they 
 showed more intelligence than our own uneducated 
 peasantry. They are knowing in cattle, sheep, and 
 goats, and can tell exactly the kind of pasturage suited 
 to each. They distinguish with equal judgment the 
 varieties of soil which are best suited to different kinds 
 of grain. They are familiar with the habits of wild 
 animals, and are well up in the maxims which embody 
 their ideas of political wisdom." The result of living 
 among them as a fellow-man is stated thus : " The 
 Backwains still went on treating us with kindness, and 
 I am not aware of ever having had an enemy in the 
 tribe." 
 
 Darwinians who speak of the paucity of the ideas of 
 savages and their limited vocabulary speak out of pure 
 ignorance, and would do well to reflect on the following 
 
140 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 observation of Livingstone: "The young who are 
 brought up in our schools know less of the tongue than 
 the missionaries. The Sichuana vocabulary is extra- 
 ordinarily copious. Mr. Moffatt never spends a week 
 at his work without discovering new words. Yet a 
 person who acted as interpreter to Sir George Cathcart 
 told him that the language of the Basutos was not 
 capable of expressing the substance of a chief's diplo- 
 matic paper, though the chief who sent it could have 
 worded it again off-hand in three or four different ways. 
 The interpreter could scarcely have done as much in 
 English." The evolutionists who discuss the languages 
 of savages are like the ignorant interpreter. An Eng- 
 lishman listening for the first time to a Frenchman may 
 think there is no meaning in the sounds he makes. 
 
 With regard to the moral sense of savages, the ex- 
 perience of Livingstone is important. At page 17 he 
 says : " In our relations with this people we exercised 
 no authority whatever. Our control depended entirely 
 on persuasion ; and, having taught them by kind con- 
 versation as well as by public instruction, I expected 
 them to do what their own sense of right and wrong 
 dictated." Those who know nothing of savages sup- 
 pose them to be less able to appreciate religious 
 teaching than the savages of London and Paris ; but 
 Livingstone records how surprised he was to hear how 
 well the converted Sechele conducted family worship, 
 and how simply and beautifully he expressed himself in 
 prayer. 
 
 It is usual among evolutionists to speak of the Bush- 
 men of South Africa as more nearly allied to apes in 
 
EVOLUTION. I4I 
 
 descent than other men, though the Bushmen may be 
 descended from Solomon, while their critics may be 
 descended from Solomon's slaves. Livingstone ob- 
 served that South Africa may be supposed to be 
 divided into three longitudinal bands running north 
 and south, each presenting peculiarities of climate, 
 physical appearances, and population. The eastern 
 zone has mountains and forests, and is well watered 
 and fertile ; and its inhabitants are, like the Zulus, tall, 
 muscular, and energetic. The central division consists 
 of undulating plains, with few springs or streams ; 
 droughts are common, so that the inhabitants are often 
 in want, and they are inferior to the inhabitants of the 
 more favoured part in physical development. The 
 third zone includes the Kalahari Desert, and it is in 
 it that the Bushmen have to live : so that it is no 
 wonder that they are small in stature and deficient in 
 muscle. If the best specimens of Europeans were 
 placed in a hot desert where they had to subsist upon 
 a few grubs and roots, and where they could only obtain 
 water in small quantity, and at the longest intervals 
 consistent with existence, so that the natural juices of 
 the body should be always deficient, what would the 
 fourth generation be ? Livingstone says : " Those who 
 inhabit the hot sandy plains have generally thin, wiry 
 forms, and are capable of great exertion and of severe 
 privations. Many are of low stature, though not 
 dwarfish. The specimens brought to Europe have been 
 selected, like costermongers' dogs, on account of their 
 extreme ugliness." Speaking of a more fertile district, 
 he says, " The Bushmen of these districts are generally 
 
142 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 fine men." There is no need to go to Africa for dwarfs 
 and abnormal specimens of humanity. If anyone will 
 go over the homes for imbeciles near Dartford he will 
 see sufficient to make him meditate more on degradation 
 than on evolution. 
 
 Livingstone had the open mind of a judge, and knew 
 what it was to work as a man. Darwin could never 
 see anything but as possible confirmation of his notion 
 that he was the highest product of evolution, since he 
 had never been taught to stand on the Level. 
 
 It will be asked : how can we explain the production 
 of the varieties of the human family from a single pair, 
 and the formation of such races as the Caucasian, the 
 Mongolian, and the Negro. Whatever difficulties may 
 be encountered in explaining the descent of the English- 
 man and the Negro from Adam, they are as nothing 
 compared to the impossibility of explaining their descent 
 from a number of ape-like ancestors. 
 
 A gardener does not require centuries to produce 
 varieties of chrysanthemums which differ wonderfully 
 from the original. Two hundred years have produced 
 such changes in American colonists that their ancestors 
 would stare in amazement at the tall, sallow, black- 
 haired individuals who would claim to be descendants. 
 If we suppose that Adam and Eve had the skin pig- 
 mented, as seems natural to the natives of semi-tropical 
 countries, there would be nothing very wonderful in 
 the change of their descendants in Africa to Negroes, 
 or in the acquirement of fair complexions by those 
 emigrating to the north. 
 
 Climate and mode of life have transforming effects 
 
EVOLUTION. 143 
 
 which science has not fully estimated. Many English- 
 men soon become very dark-skinned in the hot, moist 
 districts of Africa ; and even the descendants of typical 
 Scots who had settled in London will be found to have 
 lost their characteristic features. The swampy and 
 unhealthy districts of Africa must have been peopled 
 originally by fugitives beaten in war, or by escaped 
 criminals or slaves. Habitual efforts to tear tough and 
 uncooked food with the teeth would be likely to develop 
 the strong and prominent Negro jaw, while the absence 
 of opportunity for calm reflection and study would tend to 
 produce the materialistic type of mind and physiognomy, 
 with low forehead and large posterior brain. 
 
 It is not improbable that ancient Egyptian slave- 
 owners gave great attention to the rearing of slaves, 
 and special care may have been given to the production 
 of peculiar varieties. The curly-headed may have been 
 set apart as worthy of perpetuation ; and a Negro does 
 not differ so much from Caucasians as a fowl with its 
 feathers all up on end differs from its normal ancestor. 
 There are typical English families in which some of 
 the members have hair so curly that it cannot by any 
 means be combed straight ; and if some religious mean- 
 ing were seen in such hair we might have special care 
 devoted to the increase of the peculiarity. If the priests 
 thought it part of their duty to try to produce a perfect 
 man they may have produced the different varieties of 
 mankind owing to their inability to agree as to what 
 constitutes perfection. Some may have preferred the 
 Mongolian features, and others the Caucasian. We 
 know that the Chinese have still a wonderful insight 
 
144 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 into the methods of altering the growth and appearance 
 of trees and flowers, and the history of the ancient 
 world shows that our present knowledge of some things 
 is only like fragmentary ruins when compared with the 
 knowledge of Egyptian priests in the time of Moses. 
 
 Darwinism is virtually an appeal to phrenology ; and 
 the statues erected in honour of Darwin emphasise this 
 by giving him a form of head very different from that 
 shown in his photographs. The appeal is to the 
 orthognathous or prognathous skull, and the amount 
 of frontal development. There are many examples of 
 Englishmen with orthognathous type of head whose 
 sons and grandsons are of the most inferior prognathous 
 type. The child of the philosopher is often devoid of 
 natural talents ; and the child with the best brain is 
 often that of parents without any special claim to superior 
 form. 
 
 Vicious habits cause degradation of type in one 
 generation, and anyone may see examples around him. 
 Men and women full of the sense of their own import- 
 ance, and certain of their superior place in evolution, 
 produce criminals, and idiots, and lunatics, for the 
 workers of the nation to support. There are a few 
 great families in England whose superior qualities have 
 been preserved for many generations by the constant 
 recognition of responsibility to God, and the careful 
 cultivation of the higher mental faculties ; but the 
 officers of prisons and asylums know well that the most 
 vicious criminals and most degraded imbeciles often 
 belong to families of famous name. 
 
 Neglect to use an organ causes weakness and 
 
EVOLUTION. 145 
 
 imperfection of it. A physical deformity, such as may 
 be due to injury of an arm or leg, is not hereditary ; but 
 degenerations of the higher nature are hereditary. The 
 higher determines the lower, and spirit can mould 
 matter, as we see every day in the gradual physical 
 deterioration of those debased in spirit, and the increase 
 of beauty in those cultivating nobility of sentiment. 
 When a mere animal life has been enjoyed for several 
 generations, the type of head and the physiognomy 
 become degraded so as to resemble those so well known to 
 caricaturists of agricultural labourers and Irish peasants; 
 yet the ancestors of the labourers, or of the Irish peasants, 
 may have been missionaries who civilised the ancestors 
 of the men who now describe them as examples of 
 inferior evolution. Centuries of neglect, and starvation, 
 and grinding tyranny, may make a man afraid to call 
 his soul his own, and the continual debasement of spirit 
 will alter the form of the features ; but the history of 
 the Israelites, as well as that of the English labourer 
 and the Irish peasant, proves that spiritual vitality 
 can successfully resist the external causes of physical 
 degradation. 
 
 Hebrews and Christians, as representing primitive 
 man, feel the necessity of continual effort to prevent 
 the spiritual degeneration of mankind, and the con- 
 sequent destruction of morality and civilisation ; for 
 intellectual culture and social prosperity do not depend 
 on evolution, or climate, or government, or material 
 riches, or knowledge of physical laws, but on the religious 
 ideals of the nation. Nearly two thousand years ago 
 the servants and slaves in Rome and in other towns 
 
 O.M. L 
 
I46 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 were able to understand clearly the meaning of the 
 letters written by Saint Paul ; while now those letters 
 are regarded as incomprehensible by millions of people 
 described as educated. Among modern writers sup- 
 posed to have knowledge we find that Haeckel has no 
 notion of the meaning of worship, and thinks that those 
 who speak of spiritual beings are referring to some kind 
 of accumulation of gas ; but this loss of spiritual sense 
 may be due to continuous occupation with material 
 things, and with the learning and repetition of words, 
 so that he never was able to stand alone and think for 
 himself clearly and profoundly. 
 
 He who tries to follow the evolution theory to its 
 logical conclusions soon loses himself in chaos. He 
 says that all things are absolutely controlled by rigid 
 mechanical laws without possible interference by Divine 
 Intelligence, and that consequently there can be no 
 freedom of will ; then he not only exercises his own 
 will very freely, but attempts to induce other wills to 
 yield to it. Although regarding himself as a mere 
 temporary excrescence on the surface of an infinite mass 
 of ever-changing protoplasm, he discusses theories of 
 the universe, and tries to invent a law of substance on 
 which to fix himself. He professes to believe that after 
 his death there will be no more existence for him than 
 for a cabbage that has been eaten, which may be quite 
 true, since eternal life is the gift of God ; yet he is not 
 content to die without dragging others with him, and 
 is most anxious to deprive everyone else of immortality, 
 even though they may be conscious of possessing eternal 
 life. Because he has no theological knowledge he is 
 
EVOLUTION. I47 
 
 greatly aggrieved that intellectual giants like Newton 
 and Kant possessed such knowledge, as if feeling their 
 religion to be a depreciation of his intelligence. When 
 a man is blind he ought not to grieve because others 
 see ; and though he is certain of annihilation he need 
 not fret because others will live. 
 
 Haeckel says : " We can only arrive at a correct 
 knowledge of the structure and life of the social body, 
 the State, through a scientific knowledge of the structure 
 and life of the individuals who compose it, and the cells 
 of which they are in turn composed." Again he says 
 that the cells are " the only actual, independent factors 
 of the life-process." He considers knowledge of cells, 
 and the process of evolution, of extreme importance for 
 politicians, and judges, and all teachers ; but the judge 
 has to deal with a man and not with an embryo ; and 
 when politicians require votes they cannot reckon cells. 
 It may be interesting for a captain of a ship to discuss 
 a theory of cosmic dust ; but passengers under his 
 care wish him to attend to the solid sun and stars, and 
 not to trouble himself about their evolution, or the 
 independence of their atoms. 
 
 The word " sin " loses all meaning when man is 
 regarded as evolved from animals, and what theologians 
 call sin is said to be merely the manifestation of ancestral 
 disposition, or the accidental survival of habits once use- 
 ful and necessary but now harmful. Morality and con- 
 science can have no definite standard to the Darwinian, 
 and God cannot be known as superior to force or law. 
 
 It is evident that if Darwinism is true there can never 
 have been anything resembling the peaceful bliss of 
 
 L 2 
 
I48 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Eden ; and the description of Adam and Eve as perfect 
 man and woman must be regarded as a baseless myth. 
 The production of the human race from brutes by natural 
 selection and survival of the fittest implies continual 
 strife, and the crushing out of the weak by the strong. 
 There cannot have been a Fall from perfection ; and 
 therefore belief in Redemption and Atonement is a vain 
 delusion. The Christian claims for his first ancestor a 
 perfect man, capable of communing with his Creator in 
 the Garden. The Darwinian looks back to ancestors 
 among a multitude of apes, or ape-like brutes : the most 
 filthy and shameless of all animals, and the least stable 
 in purpose or trustworthy in disposition : without the 
 constancy of the dove, or the industry of the ant, or the 
 providence of the bee, or the skill of the beaver, or the 
 faithfulness of the dog, or the cleanliness of the cat. 
 Haeckel is quite logical in rejecting Christianity when 
 he accepts Darwinism, though the irrational dogmas he 
 substitutes would have shocked and puzzled Darwin. 
 
 Men and nations develop according to their ideals. 
 The Christian thinks himself the descendant of a perfect 
 man. To the evolutionist there can be no perfection 
 and no moral standard, so that degeneration is inevit- 
 able. Darwin was provided with excellent teachers, 
 and surrounded by the elevating influences of religion ; 
 and thus the tendency to untruthfulness, or a natural 
 deficiency in moral sense, which he describes, was over- 
 come. In later life he was most careful to be accurate 
 and honest in all things, and this is proved by his reflec- 
 tions on his own symptoms of deficiency of the higher 
 aesthetic faculties, which he was able to recognise by 
 
EVOLUTION. 149 
 
 contrast with the elevation of soul he had for a time 
 acquired through association with spiritually-minded 
 friends in his youth. At page 100 of the " Life of 
 Darwin " there is the following sad confession in his 
 autobiographical reflections : 
 
 " For many years I cannot endure to read a line of 
 poetry. I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and 
 found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I 
 have also almost lost my taste for pictures and music. 
 . . . My mind seems to have become a kind of machine 
 for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts, 
 but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part 
 of the brain alone on which the higher tastes depend I 
 cannot conceive. A man with a mind more highly 
 organised or better constituted than mine would not, I 
 suppose, have thus suffered ; and if I had to live my life 
 again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry 
 and listen to some music at least once every week, for 
 perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would thus 
 have been kept active through use. The loss of these 
 tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be 
 injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the 
 moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of 
 our nature." 
 
 Here we have the great naturalist at his best. He 
 looks calmly and honestly at himself, and records his 
 opinion with the candour which characterised his life ; 
 and he evidently suspects hereditary weakness of the 
 higher aesthetic tastes, and sees the danger of concen- 
 trating attention upon the physical. He had never 
 learned, or had never been capable of knowing, that 
 
150 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 the Bible is the great original storehouse of the germs 
 of all true poetry and music, and that the study of it 
 would have been the best training for his highest facul- 
 ties, and the best exercise to enable him to appreciate 
 the thoughts of Shakespeare or Tennyson. He forgot 
 to worship the Designer while gratifying his curiosity 
 by investigating the details of the work, and, conse- 
 quently, he was never able to see in the Light. If such 
 a man as Darwin felt the continual contemplation of 
 animals as ancestors to be dragging him down, what 
 must we expect to result in the case of those who have 
 not received his early training in reverence for the ideals 
 of religion ? 
 
 The truth of a theory is tested by its inevitable con- 
 sequences. When Darwin recorded the fact that mere 
 contemplation of the theory of descent from animals as 
 a possible solution of the puzzle of the origin of man had 
 caused degeneration and atrophy of his higher faculties, 
 there were few who appreciated the accuracy and 
 importance of the observation. The fruit of the theory 
 had not ripened. There are now a considerable number 
 of writers who have been taught from childhood to 
 regard the theory as true, and consequences are becoming 
 apparent. The eloquent and sincere preacher who has 
 not sufficient education to understand science, or sufficient 
 experience to understand theology, loses himself and his 
 followers in a pantheistic fog. Strange as it may seem, 
 the Boer war, which will " stagger humanity " so long 
 as history is studied, was caused by belief in evolution. 
 The authors of that war openly mocked at ancient 
 notions of right and wrong. One of the leading pro- 
 
EVOLUTION. 151 
 
 moters of the war, a man with what is known as scientific 
 education, had adopted the evolutionist teaching that 
 morality is only what we choose to make it by an 
 unwritten code that we designate as moral, and that 
 vice is an infringement of codes and regulations that we 
 have made for our convenience. He is reported to have 
 asserted as his belief: "The actual vice is nothing. It 
 is the being found out that makes the crime." Thus 
 lies and murders were not regarded as either sins or 
 crimes ; and would have been proclaimed perfectly right 
 if the attempt to seize the gold mines had been success- 
 ful. This evolutionary notion of morality has been so 
 widely accepted that the criminals were honoured instead 
 of being hanged. 
 
 Darwin did not intend to assert that all things are 
 produced and governed by fate or blind chance ; and 
 yet that was the inevitable consequence of the substitu- 
 tion of Natural Selection for Providence. If he had 
 recognised the Creator as Gardener, evolving species by 
 special interferences with pre-existing species, and had 
 seen man as the child of God, then this theory of crea- 
 tion by evolution would not have been inconsistent with 
 Christianity, and he would not have had to lament the 
 tendency to degeneration of all the higher and distinctive 
 human faculties produced by belief in evolution without 
 God. If man is able to transplant the spurs of a cock 
 so that they grow out of the comb, we need have no 
 difficulty in believing that the Creator developed seals 
 from bears. The essential point is to see the hand of 
 God in the work. 
 
 The view a man takes of Nature may be determined 
 
152 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 to a great extent by his inherited qualities, and the mode 
 of his rearing. In " The Descent of Man " we find it 
 solemnly asserted that " all ought to refrain from 
 marriage who cannot avoid abject poverty for their 
 children ; for poverty is not only a great evil, but tends 
 to its own increase by leading to recklessness in marriage." 
 The theorist did not know who fed him, and did not 
 consider that open competition in the struggle for 
 existence is necessary to teach common sense, and to 
 give opportunity for the development of courage, self- 
 denial, and endurance. One of the misfortunes of a 
 wealthy country is the production of children by the 
 rich, since the essential citizens are those able and 
 willing to support themselves by labour, and the descen- 
 dants of the rich are apt to become discontented whining 
 parasites when they have squandered the hordes left by 
 ancestors. The lives of those who have been the bene- 
 factors of struggling humanity prove that the best 
 inheritance is poverty ; and while the man saved from 
 earning his own living by his own exertions is groaning 
 over the cruelty of fate in compelling him to work before 
 eating, the Fuegian on his wild and barren shore may 
 shout with joy in life, and share the feeling of the poet 
 who exclaimed : 
 
 " Then fear not in a world like this, 
 And thou shalt know ere long, 
 Know how sublime a thing it is 
 To suffer and be strong." 
 
 Darwin says that when we see so much evidence 
 tending to suggest community of descent we must 
 
EVOLUTION. 153 
 
 believe in the theory of evolution by natural selection, 
 because " to take any other view, is to admit that our 
 structure, and that of all the animals around us, is a 
 mere snare laid to entrap our judgment." A man 
 accustomed to enjoy mountaineering would not readily 
 adopt this argument as of great importance. Why are 
 there trackless oceans, and waterless deserts, and arctic 
 regions, and terrible hurricanes ? Man must have oppor- 
 tunities of testing his powers, and the brave delight in the 
 conflict. It is a joy to intelligent energetic children to 
 have puzzles set by their parents. The spiritual man is 
 never confounded in honest search of truth ; and the higher 
 the summit he has to climb the wider is his field of view. 
 There is no need to take refuge in the utterly absurd 
 notion that species descended from pre-existing species 
 by natural generation without supernatural interference ; 
 for there is no difficulty whatever in believing that the 
 Creator could perform such operations as the development 
 of a reptile from a fish by the modification of a germ. 
 
 Trials of faith and temptations are necessary for 
 development, and therefore for higher enjoyment. 
 The child with perfect confidence in his father is never 
 confounded by tasks, or puzzles, or even by punish- 
 ment. Animals tear and devour one another ; so that 
 one might fancy the Creator delights in cruelty, and be 
 perplexed with doubts ; yet the only feelings of a deer 
 when pursued and torn by wolves may be pleasurable. 
 One man may have his skin so tender that the slightest 
 scratch causes agony ; while another with apparently 
 similar skin may be unable to resist the pleasure of 
 scratching. A lunatic may tear out his bowels or his 
 
154 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 eyes in order to enjoy himself. Epileptics are to all 
 appearances suffering tortures when they know nothing 
 of the cause of the anxiety of their friends. 
 
 The evolution theory provides a storehouse of tempta- 
 tions. By it those who wish to find excuses, or to hide 
 themselves from God by holding straw before their eyes, 
 try to convince themselves that there is no freedom of 
 will, and no moral standard, and no sin, and no Judge. 
 When children are reared so that they develop into 
 criminals, the evolutionist seeks comfort by saying that 
 their conduct is merely an example of reversion to the 
 type of some savage ancestor ; and thus parents try to 
 escape censure for neglect of moral and religious training. 
 
 Nobody really believes in evolution by natural selec- 
 tion. Darwin assumes that the introduction of new 
 species is a regular and natural phenomenon, and is 
 not in any way due to miraculous or supernatural 
 interference. This assumption is utterly false, yet is 
 the foundation of the evolution theory. Since the first 
 dawn of human history no group of animals having all 
 the characteristics exhibited by species has ever been 
 originated by selection, whether natural or artificial. 
 A sheep has always been a sheep, and will be a sheep 
 so long as there is a man upon the earth. 
 
 What confusion of ideas causes men of great ability 
 to fancy that they believe the evolution theory to be 
 scientific truth, and not a mere working hypothesis ? 
 They confound Man's Time with God's Time. Species 
 are temporary and mutable to God ; but permanent 
 and immutable to man. There is no possibility of 
 discovering beginning or ending, or break, in the work 
 
EVOLUTION. 155 
 
 of the Creator; and the finite mind loses itself in 
 trying to traverse the infinite past. Evolution may 
 enable man to walk over chasms of infinite depth by 
 approximating the edges so that he can step over as if 
 on continuous solid ground but the chasms are there. 
 
 The evolutionist makes the fatal mistake of assuming 
 that there is no power or agency but what he can 
 recognise : and he is thus as irrational as a savage 
 denying the possibility of telegraphy, or of seeing 
 through a wooden box. If we had the necessary gifts 
 for seeing, we should be able to distinguish as great 
 differences between the protoplasm which produces a 
 pig and that which produces a horse as there are 
 between the fully-developed pig and horse. It is 
 absurd to describe all protoplasms as alike because we 
 cannot see the distinctions. There is not the slightest 
 ground for supposing that protoplasm capable of forming 
 an elephant can ever, by any change of circumstances 
 or surroundings, lose its power to produce an elephant 
 and gain the power to produce a different animal. 
 
 The mind has a tendency to take refuge in words 
 when confronted with mystery. There is said to be 
 survival of the fittest. Who are the fittest ? The 
 answer must be those who survive ; though it may be 
 the savages who survive after killing the missionaries. 
 There is a sense of satisfaction in saying that a young 
 duck knows how to swim by instinct. What is 
 instinct ? Natural Selection is said to act by accumu- 
 lating favourable variations of species. Why should 
 there be any variations ? Why should there be a 
 limited number, and not an infinity of them ? The 
 
156 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 answer may be that species have an internal tendency 
 to variation, or that cells fail to divide correctly ; and 
 there is supposed to be an explanation. 
 
 It is unscientific to admit supernatural interference, 
 yet it is irrational to deny it. Science is expected to 
 deal with what is known and permanent. Is there 
 anything really known or permanent except laws and 
 ideals instinctively recognised by consciousness ? The 
 permanent realities are in the mind. The universe is 
 permanent for man, though not for God. The seeker 
 of scientific truth feels himself surrounded by an elastic 
 wall which is impenetrable, and which supports him 
 as he leans against it ; but which yields in proportion 
 to his strength and his efforts to penetrate it. The 
 unscientific dogmatist says the wall is rigid and 
 immovable ; while the irrational evolutionist says 
 there is no wall, and resembles a lunatic fancying 
 himself standing upon nothing. God has provided 
 standpoints and security. 
 
 The evolutionist believes that the only reality is 
 something that can be perceived or estimated by the 
 senses ; and yet the basis of atoms, and electrons, and 
 ether on which he builds vanishes into nothingness, 
 while faith, and hope, and love abide for ever. 
 
 Belief in evolution makes clear knowledge and sound 
 reasoning impossible. Nothing is seen as positive and 
 permanent. Truth itself is not distinctly recognised ; 
 while morality and justice are supposed capable of 
 change. There is no stability. Man is confounded 
 and bewildered, like a traveller dreaming of the invisible 
 atoms of which matter is composed until his ship is 
 
EVOLUTION. 157 
 
 wrecked on the solid rock. Gold has been gold for 
 man ever since his first appearance on the earth, and 
 will remain gold for him while the world endures ; though 
 to the Creator it may be a temporary arrangement of 
 atoms of matter or of elements of force. 
 
 In the organic world there is evidence of progressive 
 differentiation of parts and specialisation of organs 
 from the single cell of protoplasm to man ; yet there 
 are distinct species. How is this ? Evolutionists say 
 that fossil remains supply the transitional forms neces- 
 sary to fill the gaps in the production of species by 
 natural descent from pre-existing species. Why did 
 the transitional forms die out ? Evolutionists say that 
 transitional forms were extinguished in order to give 
 distinctive characters to species. We are thus asked to 
 believe that the law of Natural Selection ordained 
 periodical general suicide so as to leave special breaks 
 in the continuity of evolution to enable man to have 
 some definite knowledge. In like manner we might 
 believe that the law of gravitation could have arrested 
 falling stones and earth on the side of Mont Blanc to 
 construct comfortable stairs for the use of man. The 
 formation of species by any natural law is an absurdity. 
 At every production of a species there must have been 
 a definite supernatural interference ; there must have 
 been an archetypal form, or formal cause, in the Divine 
 Mind in every case, whether the work was done by 
 pruning, or by grafting, or by acting chemically upon 
 the germ, or by any other means of modifying the 
 growth of protoplasm. 
 
 Gradual progressive creation is confounded with the 
 
158 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 theory of Darwin. When a milliner changes the shape 
 of a hat into a form which bears very little resemblance 
 to the original, those who reason like Darwin would 
 have us believe that the hat passes by chance into a 
 multitude of variations, according as gravity, or wind, 
 or collision with other bodies, or an infinite multitude of 
 accidental circumstances may determine. The great 
 fact lost sight of is that there was an ideal in the mind 
 of the worker before each definite change of form. 
 There was a formal cause. 
 
 Man may be regarded as the most complete machine 
 that can possibly exist. The simplest machine requires 
 an inventor, and a formal cause, and must also have 
 a final cause, or some use ; yet evolutionists teach that 
 the human machinery grew by chance from a speck of 
 protoplasm, or from nothing, and never had an inventor, 
 or a formal cause, and has no final cause. Such is the 
 climax of absurdity which is the result of belief in the 
 evolution theory. The man who says in his heart, 
 there is no God, is truly a fool. 
 
 There is no such thing as the production of species 
 by natural laws ; and there is no such thing as purposive 
 selection or permanent improvement by natural laws. 
 Evolutionists confound change with improvement. 
 Natural laws will clothe a continent with forests ; but 
 will just as readily devastate it with fires. Natural 
 laws will give one country rich soil and fertility ; but 
 will as readily convert fertile land into desert by drought 
 and sand. Natural laws tend quite as much to destruc- 
 tion and decomposition as to improvement. Tides, and 
 storms, and floods, and fires, and earthquakes do not 
 
EVOLUTION. I5g 
 
 aim at improvement or even at preservation. Natural 
 laws destroy species ; but natural laws have never been 
 known to produce a new species. The good man pre- 
 serves what is good, and makes improvements ; and the 
 good man can only imitate his Creator. 
 
 There is no purposive selection except by an intelli- 
 gent being. God preserves the fittest, or the essential. 
 The Bible may seem a simple book ; but it is essential, 
 and so has been preserved. A self-conceited, discon- 
 tented man will propose regulations for the preservation 
 of those his arrogant fancy would select as fittest to 
 survive ; yet when his own children prove a nuisance 
 to Society he prevents their imprisonment by sending 
 them to a colony which does not carry out evolutional 
 principles by shooting all undesirables who land. The 
 deformed dwarf able to rejoice in life, and thankful for 
 the good things around him, must be fitter to survive in 
 the eyes of the Creator than the morose grumbling 
 giant, though the carcase of the latter would be more 
 valuable to the manufacturer of fertilisers. 
 
 Evolutionists assume that Natural Selection can 
 improve mankind, and that the struggle for existence 
 will secure the survival of the fittest ; but it is those 
 who rejoice in life who are the fittest to survive. Those 
 who multiply most rapidly at present are those indif- 
 ferent to foul surroundings. While those talking as 
 refined, prudent, virtuous, and most desirable citizens 
 are so anxious for the elevation of the race that they 
 leave no issue, those who care nothing for the future 
 leave a numerous progeny to rejoice in the slums. 
 When evolutionists unite with Christians in trying to 
 
l6o THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 elevate the race by cherishing noble standards and 
 striving to improve the moral nature, they completely 
 abandon Darwinism, since the appeal is not to any 
 natural law of selection, but to ideals recognised by 
 intelligent men worshipping the Supreme Ideal. 
 
 Ignorance of ancient religion, and language, and 
 philosophy, and history has been a great common 
 characteristic of the leading advocates of the theory 
 that man has naturally descended from lower animals. 
 Ignorance of ancient civilisation, and ignorance of 
 modern degradation, are necessary before the present- 
 day parasite can imagine himself superior to the great 
 pioneers of ancient times. Artificial conditions of 
 society prevent theorists from realising the fact that any 
 man who has not been provided for by ancestors must 
 dig, and plant, and reap, just as Adam did, and as no 
 animal ever did or ever will do. Those who employ 
 the marvellous machinery of our time have to be 
 instructed and trained, but they have not in any way 
 evolved ; and they are not stronger, physically or 
 mentally, than Samson, or Homer, or Newton, who 
 knew nothing of steam-engines. 
 
 Ignorance of history leads the evolutionist to construct 
 for himself an imaginary childhood of mankind, with 
 primitive man as a savage animal, terrified at every 
 unusual phenomenon as at the operation of a hostile 
 demon ; believing in countless gods, each requiring his 
 special sacrifice for propitiation ; worshipping animals, 
 and trees, and rocks ; without any moral standard or 
 any religion, The true history of primitive man is 
 that of a marvellous philosopher, not provided by 
 
EVOLUTION. l6l 
 
 ancestors with words and phrases to repeat, but accus- 
 tomed to think for himself without words ; a man with 
 confidence in the Creator, because knowing Him by pro- 
 found thought and spiritual experience ; able to bequeath 
 to his degenerate loquacious descendants the sure 
 foundations of religion, language, and philosophy. The 
 history of mankind is a record of struggle against 
 degrading tendencies, and in every age and country 
 there are alternations of victory and defeat ; but it is 
 always the foundation truths taught by primitive* man 
 which preserve society from the anarchy to which it 
 would soon be reduced by idolatry and demon-worship 
 if depending on evolution and the triumphs of physical 
 science. 
 
 The ancients have left on record their notion of a 
 good member of the Church. " He that leadeth an 
 uncorrupt life ; and doeth the thing which is right ; and 
 speaketh the truth from his heart. He that hath used 
 no deceit in his tongue ; nor done evil to his neighbour: 
 and hath not slandered his neighbour. He that setteth 
 not by himself, but is lowly in his own eyes ; and 
 maketh much of them that fear the Lord. He that 
 sweareth unto his neighbour, and disappointeth him 
 not, though it were to his own hindrance. He that 
 hath not given his money upon usury ; nor taken reward 
 against the innocent." 
 
 How many modern churches take pains to inquire 
 whether there are any members liars or cheats ? The 
 preacher does not say, " Are you a liar ? Do you give 
 short measure ? Do you dress fashionably, and give 
 liberally in public, while your private debts are unpaid ? " 
 
 o.m. M 
 
162 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 He is more likely to ask, " Do you drink beer ? Do you 
 use tobacco ? Do you eat pork, or fish, or lentils ? 
 Do you face towards the east or towards the west in 
 prayer ? " How much progress has there been in 
 religion ? 
 
 The brief account of the life of Abraham is important 
 for those interested in Darwinism. Abraham paid a 
 large price for a field in which to bury his wife. How 
 is it land was so dear ? He paid the four hundred 
 shekels of silver. How is it he paid in silver currency 
 when in the present day, or until recently, trade is by 
 barter in many parts of the world ? When he asked 
 the sons of Heth for a sepulchre for Sarah, as he was a 
 stranger in their country, they told him to select any 
 sepulchre he pleased, and did not wish any payment. 
 Are modern people kinder to strangers ? Those who 
 need a lesson in sympathy, kindness, and courtesy may 
 find it in the record of the dealings of Abraham with 
 the sons of Heth rather than in the descriptions of 
 dealings between Chicago merchants and negroes. 
 When the herdsmen of Abraham disputed with those 
 of Lot regarding grazing rights, Abraham said, " If thou 
 wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right ; or 
 if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go the 
 left." Has that method of settling a quarrel undergone 
 evolution ? How many thousand years was Abraham 
 before the Neo-lithic Age of Britain ? 
 
 The people are deceived by ignorant teachers. The 
 study of natural history is to a great extent similar to 
 the accumulation of gossip ; and proficiency in know- 
 ledge of the structure and habits of plants and animals 
 
EVOLUTION. 163 
 
 has little relation to intellectual ability or genuine 
 scholarship. Darwin learned in his later years that the 
 cramming of the memory with facts and anecdotes is 
 positively detrimental to the higher faculties ; yet there 
 are multitudes who believe that the great naturalist was 
 an eminent scholar. 
 
 Herbert Spencer wrote in ponderous dogmatic style 
 as if an infallible authority, and readers supposed him 
 to be a man of vast learning ; yet his autobiography 
 proves that he was so convinced of his own natural 
 superiority, and so pleased with his own opinions, that 
 he never took the trouble to study the works of others. 
 He was a deplorably ignorant philosopher ; and while 
 posing as an oracle on the history of ethics, and society, 
 and religion, he had not even a schoolboy's appreciation 
 of the literature and history of Rome. 
 
 Haeckel has laboriously compiled a miscellaneous 
 mass of facts, theories, and absurd fancies relating to 
 mankind and the universe, and apparently proving to 
 his satisfaction that consciousness is delusion, and that 
 the only reality is chaos. He is like a man assuming 
 that careful study of the number and form of the teeth 
 possessed by a rabbit can enable him to understand 
 wireless telegraphy. He says, "If, then, the substance 
 of the soul were really gaseous it should be possible to 
 liquefy it " ; and he thinks that Christians worship a 
 personal God " as an invisible, properly speaking, 
 gaseous being." When men speak of the communion 
 of kindred spirits this teacher virtually confesses that his 
 higher faculties are so atrophied that he is incapable 
 of understanding them. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 The theory that began as a heresy has now become a 
 superstition. As it was at first denounced by prejudice 
 without reasoning, so now it is accepted by credulity 
 without reasoning ; and spiritual blindness is the 
 inevitable consequence. 
 
 The discovery of remains of the mammoth, or 
 elephant, or woolly rhinoceros in England in association 
 with stone weapons is referred to in newspapers as 
 evidence of the millions of years that man has been in 
 this land ; though the writers can never have attempted 
 to form a notion of what is signified by one thousand 
 years. When we consider the rate of destruction of the 
 cliffs near Dover, it seems probable that England was 
 connected with France as recently as the time of the 
 Pharaohs by a deep valley such as those which are 
 common between Brighton and Deal. As soon as the 
 Atlantic had made a path into the German ocean a 
 very few years would suffice to convert the valley into 
 a channel several miles in width ; since the force of the 
 current would be greater when the channel was 
 narrower. Swimmers know with what velocity the 
 tide passes Folkestone. The animals of Asia were as 
 free to extend their migrations into England as cattle 
 in Yorkshire would be to wander into Surrey if there 
 were no fences and few inhabitants in this country. 
 
 Men without sufficient knowledge of history to enable 
 them to form any conception of the changes that took 
 place in a few centuries, write brilliant articles on the 
 evolutional significance of burial mounds and megalithic 
 monuments that are described as pre-historic, though 
 they are modern compared with the ruins of Babylon ; 
 
EVOLUTION. 165 
 
 and the simple think they have learned something of 
 the origin of man from apes when they have heard an 
 impressive lecture full of references to dolmens, barrows, 
 menhirs, cromlechs, and neo-lithic marvels. Cave- 
 dwellers are supposed to have been like the savage of 
 Darwin, unable to count more than four, or like the 
 KafBr who is expected to be ignorant of the difference 
 between sixty shillings and forty shillings a month ; 
 for evolutionists do not consider why an enormous 
 number of teachers are always needed to teach the 
 modern man to count more than four, or how it has 
 happened that many clever and successful merchants, 
 unable to read, or write, or count as required at school, 
 have yet been able to keep an accurate register of very 
 complicated business. 
 
 When a tribe of small men are discovered in Central 
 Africa, the evolutionist adopts Darwin's method of 
 reasoning in the name of science compels the facts 
 to fit the theory, and because ignorant of their history 
 assumes that the pigmies never had any history as men. 
 An observer with his mind unclouded by theory would 
 remember that there are many small degraded men in 
 London and Paris, and would wonder what would be 
 the result in a few generations if our dwarfish families 
 were treated as outcasts because unfit for military 
 service, and were prevented from intermarrying with 
 families of larger stature, and were compelled to find 
 homes in a dense forest where they could never enjoy 
 sunshine, and where they could only obtain a scanty 
 supply of roots and grubs for food. 
 
 The Fuegians are described as the lowest step in 
 
l66 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 the human ladder, and as a disappearing fragment of 
 the Stone Age. Were the Fuegians seen by Darwin 
 really inferior to him in symmetry and strength of body, 
 or even in type of head and face ? The degree of 
 cultivation attained by degraded Europeans in two 
 thousand years cannot be attained by degraded Fuegians 
 in one hundred years ; but educated Fuegians will 
 probably have something to say for themselves in reply 
 to evolutionists. Russian teachers talked of evolution 
 until they almost persuaded themselves and their 
 countrymen that the Japanese are contemptible beings 
 only recently emerged from an ape stage of existence. 
 Those accustomed to bully the weak, the poor, and the 
 less fortunate cannot appreciate any argument but a 
 knock-down blow. Even German evolutionists are 
 beginning to learn that there is a limit to the insults a 
 coloured race will endure, and they have abandoned 
 belief in evolution ; for, instead of trusting to natural 
 superiority gained by the law of selection, they are 
 anxious to prevent education and the acquisition of 
 modern weapons, lest the negro should prove himself 
 the better man. 
 
 When a cave is discovered in some parts of Europe 
 containing evidence of having been inhabited two or 
 three thousand years ago, the evolutionist does not 
 say that it may have been inhabited in the time of the 
 Caesars, or in the time of the Pharaohs. He does not 
 like definite history, since it would not support his 
 theory ; so he says the residents in the cave must have 
 belonged to the Neo-lithic epoch, though they may 
 only have been Greek or Egyptian cattle-thieves. 
 
EVOLUTION. 167 
 
 There are many boys in this country who would soon 
 become cave-dwellers of the Stone Age if permitted, 
 and would leave traces of fire upon the stones, and 
 perhaps even a heap of empty shells. 
 
 When an evolutionist hears of the discovery of stone 
 implements in the island of Saghalien, he gives an 
 interesting lecture to prove that the island must have 
 been inhabited in the remote Neo-lithic Age, and that 
 the workers must have been somewhat similar to the 
 primitive men of Europe, since the implements resemble 
 those found in Europe. A little knowledge and reflec- 
 tion might teach him that the Neo-lithic Age may mean 
 any time during the past few thousand years, and that 
 escaped convicts or shipwrecked sailors, without any 
 tools, will make similar stone hammers, whether in 
 Saghalien or in England, and whether in the first 
 century or in the fortieth. 
 
 There are Egyptian vases more than four thousand 
 years old of beautiful form, and fashioned out of very 
 hard material. What was English or even Greek art 
 four thousand years ago ? A little figure of the date of 
 the Pharaohs is found to represent a Mongolian ; and 
 the evolutionist marvels at the fact that ancient 
 Egyptians could have any knowledge of China. A 
 Chinaman might as well wonder how Frenchmen can 
 know anything about Russia. Artistic ability does not 
 evolve by natural law, but improves by careful culti- 
 vation. Natural law has caused degradation in Egypt ; 
 while spiritual training by those who saw the Ideal has 
 elevated England. 
 
 Works are now written on the evolution of language, 
 
l68 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 but there was no evolution of language. There was 
 intuitional recognition by primitive man of the sym- 
 bolical meaning of physical phenomena, and the 
 consequent possibility of language. There has been 
 growth, development, and cultivation of language ; yet 
 even with such aids to uniformity as printing machines, 
 the London coster and the London magistrate can 
 hardly understand one another. Destruction of a great 
 language results when those taught as parrots usurp in 
 schools the place of original thinkers, and teach that 
 language is only an arbitrary collection of sounds. 
 
 There has been no evolution of society. The organi- 
 sation of society is not the result of mechanical natural 
 laws, such as those which induce animals to migrate, 
 but is due to the thought and planning of intelligent 
 beings striving by conscious efforts to improve their 
 condition and to adjust themselves to more and more 
 complicated conditions of existence. No tribe or nation 
 ever progressed by evolution. The Zulus did not 
 become superior to neighbouring tribes by Natural 
 Selection, but by the cultivation of qualities deemed 
 desirable by superior minds. No animal tries to 
 improve itself, or to make its descendants superior to 
 itself. The Zulus aimed at physical perfection, and 
 were guided by knowledge and wisdom handed down 
 by ancient teachers. 
 
 It is gratifying to self-conceit to suppose ourselves 
 superior to the ancients in moral nature ; and so 
 evolutionists point to the cruelties of the time of Nero. 
 They do not say how long it is since men and women 
 were burned to death in England for their religious 
 
EVOLUTION. 169 
 
 belief; or how long it is since an upright honest man 
 attempting to teach pure morality and religion in a 
 manner forbidden by those in power was sentenced to 
 be set in the pillory, and to have his nose mutilated 
 and his ears cut off. The evolution of morality permits 
 the slow roasting of a negro by the most highly evolved 
 white men, and the triumphant display of slices of his 
 flesh as trophies. Lecturers on moral evolution forget 
 the horrors of the Inquisition, and talk of the horrors 
 of ancient Rome ; but they need to reflect that long 
 before either the Inquisition or Rome there was the 
 glorious peaceful reign of Solomon, when kings and 
 ambassadors esteemed wisdom and justice more highly 
 than gold and diamonds. 
 
 Much is said of the superior position of women in 
 modern life ; but any improvement is due to the 
 worship of an ancient Ideal, and whenever that Ideal 
 is lost sight of there is degradation of women. After 
 walking through Piccadilly on Saturday night it is 
 difficult for a preacher to become eloquent when speak- 
 ing of the evolution of morality in Europe, and the 
 degradation of women in eastern harems. He has a 
 lurking suspicion that the birth of an illegitimate child 
 may sometimes be evidence of superior virtue. 
 
 The Christian ideal of the relation of the sexes is 
 simply that proclaimed by primitive man thousands of 
 years before the Stone Age of Britain. Christ appealed 
 to the story of Adam and Eve when He declared man 
 and wife to be one flesh. Nature provides as many 
 men as women. Sin produced wars ; and wars made 
 polygamy appear necessary. When many of the men 
 
170 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 were destroyed, what was to become of the widows and 
 the unmarried women ? Marriage was regarded as the 
 natural right of every woman. Duty and honour seem 
 to demand that every woman should have a protector 
 and a home. In later times Christians have attempted 
 to solve the difficulty by consigning the surplus female 
 population to the seclusion of convents ; but the legis- 
 lator must recognise the existence of a multitude of 
 unmarried women who will not live in convents, and 
 who even ignore religion. The Christian tries to lead 
 mankind back to the perfect state of Eden, and has to 
 struggle against modern degradation. 
 
 In considering the polygamy of the Hebrew saints it 
 must be remembered that they thought first of the 
 fundamental principles of morality, which are Truth 
 and Right. They put first things first. The King of 
 Siam is received as a friend by the representatives of 
 England, though he has many wives. Is the denuncia- 
 tion of polygamy mere cant ? Conscience teaches men 
 instinctively that truthfulness and uprightness are more 
 important than monogamy. The essential questions 
 for the Hebrew critic was, Is a man truthful ? Does 
 he live openly ? Is he candid and honest ? Has he 
 acted deceitfully towards a woman ? Is there anything 
 in his conduct that he dreads exposing to the light of 
 publicity ? The wives of the King of Siam do not 
 feel that they are wronged ; they feel honoured by 
 selection for the harem. It is not the ideal union 
 of the sexes; but higher education of women does 
 not extinguish dissatisfaction with a celibate life. 
 Many women in the East would have thought them- 
 
EVOLUTION. 171 
 
 selves wronged, not by the polygamist, but by the 
 celibate. 
 
 The polygamy of Solomon is evidence of a compara- 
 tively recent attempt to deal satisfactorily with sexual 
 relations, and has no more resemblance to the ideal of 
 Job, and Abraham, and Noah, than the polygamy of the 
 Mormons has to the moral ideals of America. It is 
 said that an English officer who mocked an old Moslem 
 for combining religion with polygamy was met with the 
 reply : "In my sojourn on earth I have looked on four 
 women. One is with Allah, and three are enjoying the 
 security and comfort of the harem. May I ask where 
 your women are ? " Concubines were kept honestly 
 and openly in ancient times, and their children had 
 parental care ; now the concubines are secret pests, 
 and their children are murdered. Is it moral advance ? 
 Those who sneer at the number of wives kept by 
 Solomon may well consider whether the streets of 
 London, and the legal dens of vice throughout Europe, 
 provide better for the health of women and of posterity 
 than the eastern harem. Solomon had a high 
 sense of his responsibility to women, and would 
 have been horrified at his modern critics, who would 
 condemn many women to celibacy, and would cast 
 out concubines to desseminate moral and physical 
 poison. 
 
 Men and women who would have been put to death 
 by the Law of Moses as monsters of immorality, and 
 as murderers of the innocent, and poisoners of domestic 
 and social life, are the heroes and heroines of the 
 modern novelist and the modern stage. The disease 
 
172 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 which is most truly hereditary, and which is the chief 
 cause of cancer, and which is causing more misery in 
 England than any other, must not be described, nor 
 even mentioned, in books intended for popular reading. 
 No wonder the fashionable evolutionist dreads the 
 reading of the Bible. The leper objects to exposure, 
 and the criminal to judgment. 
 
 The laws of caste and the restricted freedom of women 
 are proof of the age and experience of a nation, rather 
 than evidence of inferior evolution. The East has 
 passed through stages of trial, and has encountered 
 social problems which the west is only beginning to 
 discuss. The rules of caste give dignity and self-respect 
 to the poorest worker, instead of the dishonesty and 
 shame which are apt to result from a life of pretence. 
 The downfall of Egypt, and of many great empires, 
 was due to the absence of the regulations by which 
 Moses secured the health of the Israelites. The barren 
 wastes of Australia may be memorials of ancient female 
 emancipation ; and the Japanese may well dread 
 agnostic female lecturers as the most deadly plague, 
 since no greater calamity can befall them than the loss 
 of the faithful, devoted, happy wife and mother, and the 
 substitution of the selfish discontented murderess of the 
 family and the nation. 
 
 An Indian philosopher recently undertook a journey 
 round the world to study the wonderful evolution of 
 morality and society spoken of by missionaries ; but he 
 found that the only progress results from the worship 
 of the Ideal originally recognised in the East. He did 
 not find in America a nation of pious philosophers ; but 
 
EVOLUTION. 173 
 
 a nation of barbarians with no desire for wisdom or 
 knowledge except as a means of gaining money and 
 luxury. They seemed to him destitute of the dignity, 
 courtesy, and self-respect so much esteemed by the 
 ancients; and they regarded liars and robbers as esti- 
 mable men, and even placed them in positions of autho- 
 rity. These savages cast looks of deadly hatred at the 
 Mahatma when he entered a hotel or public vehicle ; 
 while in the street there was a disposition to fling stones 
 at him, apparently for no reason except that he was 
 a stranger of slightly different colour. He now prays 
 that India may be preserved from such moral and social 
 evolution, and may continue to enjoy the reverence for 
 wisdom and self-sacrifice which proceeds from profound 
 thought even in the extremest poverty. 
 
 No natural law will improve the degraded savage boys 
 and girls who infest the streets of modern cities ; and 
 no natural law will elevate the electors who delight to 
 honour a base scoundrel because he has been successful 
 in amassing money, and has given them statues, or 
 parks, or universities to secure immunity in future 
 nefarious plots against society. 
 
 Evolution makes no allowance for respect for age. 
 The young animal knocks down its parents as soon as 
 it is able. Those who believe themselves to be only a 
 superior race of animals will naturally follow the example 
 of their supposed ancestors. In China there is not yet 
 belief in Darwinism ; and so men and women think it a 
 great privilege to sacrifice their comfort in order to 
 provide for parents and grandparents. In England 
 we find that strong men and women in receipt of good 
 
174 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 wages send their old parents to the workhouse rather 
 than suffer a little diminution in their beer and tobacco. 
 The Chinese philosopher is not anxious for such moral 
 evolution. 
 
 Evolutionists need to reconstruct history ; and so we 
 find a congregation solemnly listening to the information 
 that Moses was a striking example of the sudden appear- 
 ance of a superior variation among a people evolving 
 from the savage state. The number of years of careful 
 education and training by great teachers that Moses 
 needed to make him superior have to be ignored 
 because the theory does not allow for them. A boy 
 who has learned history may recollect that Joseph, and 
 Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham were great kings of 
 humanity, and were ancestors of the people supposed 
 by the evolutionist to be savages ; and he may also 
 reflect that religious men are not necessarily ignorant 
 or savage because denied political rights and social 
 privileges. The Hebrews must have had much more 
 spiritual insight than the evolutionist preacher possesses 
 or they could not have recognised the meaning of the 
 teaching of Moses. 
 
 It is said we have proof of the savage state of the 
 Hebrews in the fact that they were willing to worship 
 golden calves ; but even their idols prove their superior 
 moral nature. They had been accustomed to a language 
 of symbolism in Egypt, and in order to express their 
 gratitude to the Creator for providing cattle to procure 
 them food out of grass they thought the worship of the 
 symbolic calf more appropriate then prostration before 
 the terrors of Sinai. The drinking of milk in thankful- 
 
EVOLUTION. 175 
 
 ness was a welcome relief after the threatenings of de- 
 struction ; and there was infinitely more wisdom in the 
 worship of the image of a calf as the symbol of the 
 Creator than in the worship of the Unknown Power of 
 evolutionists. Ignorance of modern superstition and 
 degradation is as great as ignorance of ancient wisdom 
 and faith ; for the Israelite who bowed before a calf of 
 gold had a more clear and spiritual conception of God 
 as Providence than the Russian who seeks blessing 
 from an ikon, or the Englishman who seeks the protection 
 of a horseshoe. 
 
 Nothing is too absurd to be reverenced as an idol in 
 England at the present moment. A cat or an artificial 
 mouse, or a coloured stone, or a piece of wood is relied 
 on to secure prosperity or success. The fashionable 
 name for an idol is a mascot. When a football team 
 recently came to this country from South Africa one of 
 the first questions asked by a newspaper interviewer 
 was, " What is your mascot ? " The reply of the Boer 
 was, " Although we come from Africa, we have not the 
 superstitions of savages." Yet in Europe such super- 
 stitions are replacing the Hebrew confidence in the 
 Creator. 
 
 It is now common to hear Epictetus referred to as an 
 original sage who acquired lofty moral ideals by evolu- 
 tion from heathenism ; but one might as well describe 
 a modern schoolmaster as the originator of arithmetic. 
 The works of Solomon, and Plato, and a multitude of 
 great teachers were not sealed books ; and one need not 
 go to a third class imitator when the original work is 
 available. 
 
176 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Marcus Aurelius has become a great favourite with 
 some Darwinian writers ignorant of history and anxious 
 to do without the Bible ; and they describe him as a 
 wonderful example of the unexpected appearance of 
 virtuous variations in the unmoral soil of animalism. 
 He surprises these admirers by his appreciation of 
 altruism, toleration, and forgiveness of injuries. If 
 Edward the Seventh were to jot down reflections on 
 religion he would be found to know a good deal of the 
 work of ancient writers, and even of the doctrines 
 taught by John Wesley; yet no one would describe 
 him as an original theologian. Marcus Aurelius was a 
 carefully educated man who had such authors as Cicero, 
 and Socrates, and Moses to study, while Paul had been 
 expounding the teaching of Christ in Rome before the 
 good Emperor was born. 
 
 Only recently a distinguished guest at a meeting of 
 literary men is reported to have spoken of Omar 
 Khayyam as a striking instance of the original wisdom 
 occasionally found at an early stage of human evolution ; 
 and none of the hearers pointed out the absurdity of 
 regarding a comparatively modern pessimistic Persian 
 sot as an ancient original thinker because he had a 
 slight smattering of the philosophy of Solomon, and 
 had been glorified by a translator possessed of talent. 
 There was once a great Persian empire containing many 
 wise men ; but Omar was an example of degeneration. 
 
 The credulity of evolutionists is amazing. They are 
 able to believe that everything sprang out of nothing ; 
 that the rational was produced by the irrational ; that 
 the most complicated works of design imaginable grew 
 
EVOLUTION. I77 
 
 of themselves without any Designer, or, if there was a 
 Designer, that He never took any interest in His work 
 after its construction. Atoms of matter and elements 
 of force are believed to have come into existence of 
 themselves ; and, though devoid of reason these atoms 
 and electrons originated a marvellous plan for the con- 
 struction of the universe, and finally succeeded in 
 manufacturing an intelligent being. 
 
 What a man really believes is proved by what he 
 does, and not by what he says. Conduct is the test of 
 sanity. The evolutionist is the slave of words, and has 
 not sufficient insight to perceive the full import of the 
 terms he employs. In words the evolutionist main- 
 tains that gold differs in no essential respect from copper, 
 and is subject to evolution ; but by actions he proves 
 his belief to be that gold is a very definite fixed material 
 and that there is no evolution, though there has been 
 progressive creation. 
 
 Evolutionists believe in the evolution of morality, 
 and that apes are the animals nearest to man ; yet they 
 do not venture to point to apes as possessed of a higher 
 moral standard than pigeons, which are said to be ages 
 behind them in evolution. Intelligence ought to be 
 found only in an almost imperceptible degree in insects; 
 yet children may still be advised to consider the ways 
 of the ant rather than the ways of the monkey if they 
 are to see a community of lower animals working in 
 harmony. Still the evolutionist can believe in the 
 evolution of society, and says that there has been 
 millions of years of social progress between the ant 
 and the ape. The ancient sage recognised Divine 
 
 o.M. N 
 
I78 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 intelligence revealing itself in all nature ; while the 
 evolutionist finds God nowhere. 
 
 The evolutionist is the willing victim of the lying 
 showman who professes to have an ape able to control 
 fire so as to light a cigar for itself; and he is sufficiently 
 credulous to believe that blind chance taught some 
 ancient ape how to produce and to control fire, and 
 how to preserve the secret for its own relatives ; and 
 that this blind chance withheld the knowledge from 
 all other apes, and even deprived them of the capacity 
 of learning. 
 
 There is abundant evidence proving that in the time 
 of Abraham there was in Egypt and Asia Minor a 
 dense population of people in a high state of civilisation, 
 living in peace and security under good laws. According 
 to the Bible history men had been on the earth for two 
 thousand years before Abraham, or about as long as 
 from the birth of the Christ till the present day. When 
 the people in the British Islands were living under 
 natural conditions, it was common for one woman to be 
 the mother of twelve or even of twenty children ; and 
 in the ancient East every woman was married at an 
 early age, and regarded the production of a large family 
 as a duty and an honour. Thus, when Rebekah left 
 home to be married to Isaac, the wish of her relatives 
 was, " Be thou the mother of thousands of millions." 
 The population of the earth must have been greater 
 before the time of Abraham than it is at present, even 
 if the human race had been only one thousand years in 
 existence ; yet evolutionists are so blinded by antipathy 
 to the Bible that they can believe that only a few Stone 
 
EVOLUTION. 179 
 
 Age savages existed on the rest of the earth, when 
 Egypt and Asia Minor were crowded with people 
 taught by profound philosophers. Men in ancient 
 times were not tethered. 
 
 Man was placed on the earth perfect in body and 
 mind but naked. He had to invent language and 
 tools with which to cultivate the Garden. The con- 
 quest of the earth, and the development of its resources, 
 required incessant conflict ; and it was necessary to 
 create Satan, or a personal evil Spirit, as adversary to 
 stimulate the man to exercise his spiritual and physical 
 muscles. There was often defeat and retrogression ; 
 but the essentials were always preserved by the Creator, 
 and each generation was enabled to utilise knowledge 
 gained by its predecessor, and to find delight in the 
 conflict. There was no evolution of the man, either 
 mental or physical ; though there was increasing 
 knowledge of phenomena and power over natural laws. 
 
 Confusion and delusion are caused by the misuse of 
 words. Lectures are given on the evolution of language, 
 and the evolution of morality, and the evolution of 
 religion, and the evolution of society, and the evolution 
 of whatever has been developed or improved by human 
 effort. Darwin and his followers mean by evolution 
 the operation of a natural blind law, such as gravitation, 
 and do not admit the interference of any personal 
 intelligence ; whereas those who speak of the evolution 
 of language or of society mean the progressive triumphs 
 of the human mind. The work of the human mind is 
 comparable to the work of the Divine Mind, and not to 
 natural law. 
 
 N 2 
 
l8o THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 The teacher who would try to persuade children that 
 it is as natural to eat dirt as to eat bread, because both 
 are merely accidental accumulations of matter subject 
 to evolution, and with no essential differences between 
 them, would justly be condemned as guilty of an 
 abominable crime in corrupting and poisoning those 
 under his care ; and the evolutionist is no less a vile 
 criminal when he tries to persuade children, or men, 
 that there is no essential or permanent distinction 
 between truth and falsehood, or between right and 
 wrong, and that a moral standard is in process of 
 evolving. The unchanging basis of all morality is 
 truthfulness and honesty, and what is false can never 
 be true. Society depends upon conscience ; and the 
 right-angle between the perpendicular from heaven and 
 the level on earth is eternally the same and can undergo 
 no evolution. Under pretence of evolving helplessly 
 under the rule of fate or mechanical law, men have 
 tried to evade moral responsibility for their lies, and 
 thefts, and murders, and moral corruption, and have 
 longed to throw off the yoke of Truth, and Justice, and 
 Righteousness, and Love. They have said in their 
 hearts, " Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast 
 away their cords from us." But " He that dwelleth in 
 Heaven shall laugh them to scorn ; Jehovah shall have 
 them in derision." He shall break their schemes in 
 pieces like an earthen vessel ; and He shall scourge 
 them with a rod of iron. The human judge is just 
 only when he acts in harmony with the Supreme 
 Judge. 
 
 The evolutionist is more puzzled than the theologian 
 
EVOLUTION. l8l 
 
 to find an explanation of the first appearance of man. 
 There is no such thing as the production of species 
 from pre-existing species by either natural or artificial 
 selection ; and even if we suppose that the Creator 
 made animals more and more nearly resemble man, as 
 if by evolution, there still remains the stupendous 
 miracle of endowment with spiritual consciousness, and 
 with the capacity to commune with God and to invent 
 language. There can be no communion of spirit with 
 an ape, however much it may be improved by human 
 care, or however clever the tricks it may learn to per- 
 form under human tuition. It is absurd to suppose 
 that such results of training would ever have been 
 manifested without the instruction by the superior 
 being. A dog may be taught to watch over sheep as 
 if with natural love ; but every shepherd knows what 
 would happen if the dog were left to be trained by 
 natural selection. 
 
 Man is now said by evolutionists to be a freak acci- 
 dentally produced by an ape-like ancestor, and preserved 
 by natural selection ; though encumbered with a com- 
 plication of useless, decaying, and injurious rudimentary 
 organs, which cannot properly fulfil any physiological 
 functions, and are apt to degenerate and become 
 diseased. Chance produced man by mistake, according 
 to the fully-fledged evolutionist ; and the work is neces- 
 sarily badly done. 
 
 To the physiologist and the physician, as to the 
 theologian, there is a normal man, or an ideal, or an 
 Adam ; and there can be no evolution of the norm or 
 square. To the evolutionist there can be no finality, 
 
182 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 no perfection, no ideal. The believer in the normal 
 expresses his thankfulness for health and strength, and 
 rejoices in proportion as he is able to feel in harmony 
 with the " type of perfect in his mind." An artist will 
 even form statues of Apollo and Venus to try to give 
 expression to his vision of ideals. The evolutionist is 
 blind to ideals, and cannot imagine any ground for 
 happiness or contentment ; he thinks of his large 
 intestine as a cumbersome and useless survival, and 
 even his stomach seems to him a sac unnecessarily 
 large, which might possibly be done without ; he sees 
 the hair on his body as a useless and, perhaps, even a 
 pernicious reminder of his hairy ancestors ; his coccyx, 
 and the muscles of his ears, and his tonsils, and even 
 his wisdom teeth, fill him with lamentations because 
 his evolution has not succeeded in obliterating such 
 reminders of a less perfect condition. He has sense 
 enough to be dissatisfied ; but not sense enough to 
 know what he wants. The normal man, or the man in 
 touch by spiritual sense with the normal, finds delight 
 in the study of the wonderful properties and mechanism 
 of the human eye ; the evolutionist says the eye is full 
 of defects, and could be very much improved by further 
 evolution, though he cannot decide whether he wishes 
 larger eyes, or variegated eyes, or more complex eyes, 
 or whether it would not be better to have a third eye. 
 
 The nature of man is no less puzzling to the evolu- 
 tionist than his origin. How did he acquire the dread 
 of something after death ? Did natural selection, or 
 the law of the survival of the fittest, infuse into him 
 the longing after immortality ? The purpose of the 
 
EVOLUTION. 183 
 
 tail of a peacock may be a very interesting study ; but 
 surely the purpose of the existence of man himself is a 
 matter of infinitely greater importance. The question 
 of questions is, Why does man exist ? What is his 
 final cause ? Evolutionists with vision limited by 
 the protoplasm can only say that man exists to provide 
 food for worms and manure for plants ; and the road 
 which they invite others to follow leads to a bottomless 
 quagmire. True science must have something better 
 to offer. 
 
 All morality and all civilisation depend upon worship 
 of the Perfect ; and every sane man is striving to attain 
 an Ideal which he cannot define. Christianity is the 
 worship of the Supreme Mind revealed by Nature and 
 by the Ideal Man. Mystery must always envelop the 
 origin both of the first Adam and of the Second Adam, 
 since the recognition of the Formal Cause of Man is 
 the supreme test of intelligence ; and in order to 
 worship truly the spiritual and the eternal it is 
 necessary to lose sight of the material and the 
 temporal. 
 
 Evolutionists have rendered valuable service to 
 religion by assisting in the overthrow of superstitions. 
 Hebrew theology made scientific study possible by 
 revealing and maintaining the Unity of God, and His 
 infinite wisdom and goodness. Since all things have 
 been designed by the Grand Architect, there must be 
 continuity and consistency throughout all; and since 
 all have been planned for the instruction and use of 
 man, it must be possible for him to discover something 
 of the methods pursued. Thus the Hebrews taught ; 
 
184 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 but those who had not clear spiritual vision always 
 tended to lapse into superstitions, and to believe that 
 the Creator may manifest His power by capricious 
 marvels, and bewilder man by sudden freaks. Evolu- 
 tionists pointed out the proofs in Nature of the truth 
 of the ancient teaching that all things are obedient to 
 law, and all work together as mutually dependent 
 parts of the grand design. 
 
 The ancient Hebrews saw the Creator as working in 
 all things by gradual progression, or by rapid deliberate 
 action, as occasion demanded ; but always according to 
 definite laws, which man may discover if he seeks to 
 learn in the proper spirit. Thus the Psalmist, when 
 calling upon sun and moon, stars and light, and every- 
 thing created, to praise Jehovah, says: " He spake the 
 word, and they were made ; He commanded, and they 
 were created. He hath made them fast for ever and 
 ever ; He hath given them a law which shall not be 
 broken/' The steps by which creation was effected, 
 and phenomena modified, were always close enough 
 together for man to recognise a connected system of an 
 infinite number of parts, all united so as to work in 
 harmony for mutual benefit. 
 
 Evolutionists complain that Christians do not 
 approach the discussion of the evolution theory with 
 minds open to conviction, but always try to explain away 
 whatever is opposed to their faith. When a believer 
 in the law of gravitation is shown that smoke ascends, 
 he tries to explain the ascent of the smoke while still 
 believing in gravitation. His mind is not open to 
 conviction even when he sees a piece of iron rising into 
 
EVOLUTION. l85 
 
 the air ; for instead of denying gravitation he seeks for 
 some law of magnetism or electricity to account for the 
 apparent failure of gravitation. 
 
 Belief in the evolution of man from animals is not 
 possible to a healthy mind. The distinguishing charac- 
 teristics of man, his spiritual consciousness, must be 
 lost or diseased before he can think of an ape as a 
 possible relative. What animal has a sense of the 
 sublime ? There is no savage race so degraded that 
 they cannot be civilised very quickly if converted to 
 Christianity ; and the evidence of Christian missions is 
 in itself conclusive proof of the absurdity of the notions 
 of Darwin regarding inferior races as partially evolved. 
 The most highly cultured missionary joins in prayer 
 with the converted savage ; but spiritual consciousness 
 has no doubt of the impassable gulf that keeps the 
 brute apart. 
 
 Man, as the child of God, has the power of modifying 
 and improving animals to some extent ; and the 
 animal has been said to look on man as a god. Wild 
 dogs cannot bark ; and it would seem that domestic 
 dogs have learned to bark by trying to respond to the 
 voice of man. Who improved the primitive man ? 
 There are some things which man learned for himself; 
 and yet no one can imagine how he learned. How 
 did man learn to use fire? He learned for himself; 
 but Providence has taken care that no brute can even 
 be taught this accomplishment by all the combined 
 wisdom of mankind. 
 
 Christians have been compelled by discussions on 
 evolution to consider the foundations of their faith, and 
 
l86 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 to give a reason for the hope that is in them. They 
 had become degenerate through slavish reliance on the 
 Bible, or on the Church, or on traditions ; and it was 
 necessary to remind them that Abraham and the 
 prophets had not the Bible, and that few of the early 
 Christian martyrs can have read the Gospel or seen any 
 of the letters of St. Paul. Evolutionists demanded the 
 study of origins, and tried to prove the inferiority of the 
 founders of religion. Every opinion had to be tested 
 by reason, and those who fancied that the truth of 
 Christianity somehow depends on the authorship or the 
 existence of the Book of Daniel, or of some other books 
 of the Bible, were put to confusion because they had no 
 rational ground for their religion. 
 
 Belief in the evolution of men from animals by 
 natural laws is opposed to belief in perfect archetypes. 
 There can be no arrest of the process of evolution, so 
 that the word " perfect " loses all definite meaning to 
 the evolutionist, supposing there could be a real 
 Darwinian. It becomes absurd to describe any man 
 who lived two thousand years ago as perfect, or even as 
 the equal of the more fully evolved products of the 
 present day who are regarded as still evolving ; and yet 
 there is not the slightest probability that the churches 
 of Christendom will ever be devoted to the worship of a 
 modern teacher, or the " Magnificat " be sung in 
 honour of any woman but the Madonna of Bethlehem. 
 
 There may have been in the past myriads of animals 
 more closely resembling man than any ape now 
 existing, and yet not human beings, because not 
 endowed with spiritual consciousness, or with capacity 
 
EVOLUTION. 187 
 
 to perceive the moral significance of the symbols in 
 Nature, and therefore unable to employ language. The 
 evolution theory provides a test according to which 
 mankind must divide into two great and mutually 
 exclusive classes those who know that man was 
 created perfect, and those who believe that he is only 
 an improved form of ape ; those who accept, and those 
 who reject the Ideal. Those who trust to evolutionists 
 to teach them the origin of man must for ever wander 
 in pursuit of indefinite phantoms among an infinite 
 variety of descending material forms, ignorant of any 
 object or function to justify their existence, and with no 
 hope of certain knowledge regarding either their past 
 condition or their future state. There are multitudes 
 at present bewildered among mazes of words devoid of 
 definite meaning to them, and many teachers of great 
 intellectual ability profess to believe in evolution, 
 though they have no clear notion of the significance of 
 the term. As the fogs are dissipated the parting of the 
 ways will be made plain, and the end of the path 
 leading to destruction will be revealed. 
 
 Any teacher who asserts that evolution without 
 supernatural interference is a fact of Natural History 
 must be regarded as suffering from a delusion of 
 ignorance. There is no such fact in the History of 
 Nature as the production of an atom by an atom of a 
 different kind, or the production of a metal by a metal 
 of a different kind, or the production of a species by a 
 species of a different kind. Supernatural interference 
 by Divine Intelligence was always needed to fix definite 
 forms, and mark definite boundaries, in order to bring 
 
l88 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Time, and Space, and Knowledge within reach of the 
 capacity of man ; and only supernatural interference 
 can remove a boundary. Man, being made in the 
 Image of God, or endowed with some of the Divine 
 Intelligence, may have some power to influence boun- 
 daries ; but instability in the atom of an element 
 like hydrogen or oxygen would involve the dissolution 
 of the universe. 
 
 For all that we possess as civilised beings we are 
 indebted to the ancient Hebrews, who have given us 
 religion, and language, and law, and all the essentials 
 that make progress possible. They never dreamt of 
 confounding man with brutes; for they knew that 
 they were the children of God, able to commune with 
 Him, and thus separated by an impassable gulf from 
 communion with animals. They knew the object of 
 man's existence, or his final cause, and were able to see 
 his origin in the Archetypal Form. They knew the 
 Formal Cause. Knowing that man at first was perfect, 
 and that the Perfect must again appear, they carefully 
 and proudly cherished the records of their genealogy ; 
 and the dimmed reflection of their teaching is found 
 throughout the world in the tendency to worship 
 ancestors, and to exalt heroes into gods. The Dar- 
 winian seeks in vain as his first parent an organic form 
 too base to exhibit any evidence of design. 
 
 Medical science is founded on belief in the existence 
 of a perfect archetypal body. The scientific physiologist 
 assumes as an axiom that there is a perfect ideal con- 
 dition ; and he describes all vital processes and 
 phenomena as if occurring in this ideal condition. 
 
evolution. i8g 
 
 He ignores disease and imperfection, and describes 
 them as abnormal, and leaves the study of them to the 
 pathologist. No man ever saw the perfect body, or 
 can define it ; and yet every sane man is certain of its 
 existence. 
 
 The success of a physician, either for the cure of the 
 body or the cure of the soul, depends upon the clearness 
 and completeness of his vision of the Perfect Man, and 
 his knowledge of the means of regaining harmony with 
 the Adam. The absolute standard of comparison must be 
 always before his mind, even if only as " a light that 
 shifts, a glare that drifts, rekindling thus and thus " ; 
 otherwise there can be no criterion by which to detect 
 the weak, the defective, the diseased, and the abnormal. 
 The perfect must be before the mind by intuitive 
 cognition before we can think of the imperfect ; and we 
 must have a healthy ideal before we can recognise 
 disease. Medical science has for its aim the restoration 
 of man to his primitive perfection, though in the mean- 
 time efforts must be mainly directed towards relieving 
 the suffering that is the necessary consequence of the 
 Fall. Disease and sin vanish in proportion as we bring 
 our lives and surroundings into harmony with the 
 Supreme Ideal 
 
 " Who, lest all thought of Eden fade, 
 
 Brings Eden to the craftsman's brain, 
 Godlike to muse o'er his own trade, 
 And Manlike stand with God again." 
 
 Herbert Spencer says that belief constituted by the 
 
igo THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 datum of consciousness has a higher warrant than any 
 other belief. This is the belief that is the foundation 
 of Christianity, and that makes the Christian such a 
 puzzle to those devoid of spiritual sense. The Christian 
 in modern times is a man who believes that Jesus is the 
 Christ; but in all ages the seeker of spiritual truth 
 recognised the Christ, the Archetypal Man, the Formal 
 Cause. The terms employed by the seers in their 
 efforts to explain their vision to others varied greatly, 
 but all meant the same, though vision was often 
 much obscured. He who has once seen can never 
 doubt ; and thus all the arguments of the atheist 
 are like the foolish talk of a man trying to persuade 
 a child that the father he sees every day has no 
 existence. 
 
 The origin of man must remain a mystery till the 
 mystery of God is revealed. Modern explorations in the 
 East confirm history in proving that within a period 
 of probably less than ten thousand years a pair of 
 human beings appeared in the neighbourhood of the 
 Euphrates, possessed of perfect intellectual and moral 
 nature ; so that they were able, without any of 
 the advantages which the modern man has gained 
 from his ancestors, to invent perfect religion and 
 language, and to establish the foundations of all 
 civilisation. 
 
 Growth and development depend upon climatic and 
 other conditions, and may be greater in a week in the 
 tropics than in a year in cold regions. No greater miracle 
 was needed to produce a man out of dust instantly than 
 to produce him out of dust in a million years by an 
 
EVOLUTION. igi 
 
 infinity of manipulations. The naturalist may reason- 
 ably fancy that the Creator modified two ape germs, 
 and the growth of the young apes, so as to fashion them 
 into human beings ; but history and spiritual conscious- 
 ness prove that the first pair were perfect, and were in 
 harmony with the Archetypal Man, or Formal Cause, 
 and that progress by mankind is impossible except 
 through recognition of the Archetypal Man. It is more 
 truly philosophical to believe that the Creative Spirit 
 organised a perfect soul with power to materialise itself 
 by accumulating electrons and atoms, so as to be clothed 
 and limited by a body fitted to serve as its revelation 
 and its organ. 
 
 Darwinism assumes that animals became more and 
 more human in form and intelligence until an anthro- 
 poid ape produced a son who learned to kindle a fire and 
 to speak. The experiments with fire must have been 
 wonderfully interesting to the parent apes. This theory 
 demands an amount of credulity not possessed by any- 
 one capable of appreciating the relation of animals to 
 fire or to speech. 
 
 Those who know the Creator and the Archetypal 
 Man can have no doubt that the first man was created 
 perfect, since he must have corresponded to his Formal 
 Cause. It is impossible to believe that Adam and Eve 
 were placed on the earth in infancy, and mysteriously 
 reared so as to give them the experience of childhood, 
 for that theory would demand a continuous succession 
 of miracles. The only theory satisfactory to those 
 who know the meaning of formal causes is that 
 given in Genesis, which describes our first parents 
 
192 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 as created in adult form, perfect in body and mind, 
 and so able from the first to talk with God in 
 the Garden. 
 
 " Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall 
 Godlike erect, with native honour clad 
 In native majesty, seemed lords of all, 
 And worthy seemed ; for in their looks divine 
 The image of their glorious Maker shone." 
 
193 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 INTUITION. 
 
 The most ancient method of studying the origin of 
 man is that of seeking for the Formal Cause. Instead 
 of proceeding by laborious analysis and a process of 
 logical exclusion to discover the original germ, we 
 employ the imagination to see the primary idea of him 
 in the Creative Mind ; but to do this the imagination 
 must be based upon sound knowledge and trained 
 intelligence. We cannot thoroughly appreciate a work 
 of art until our imagination is lit up with a gleam of 
 illumination from the mind of the artist ; but when we 
 have got the illumination, the wonderful view of the 
 ideal that flashes upon us is a revelation which is fixed 
 upon the memory as a beautiful and satisfying vision. 
 We have seen the true origin, for we have seen in the 
 mind of the artist the idea or form which preceded, and 
 accompanied, and caused the materialisation, and we 
 can understand the design. 
 
 This method of studying the origin of man seems 
 easy and natural to the true artist, and also to the 
 peasant who has been accustomed to think for him- 
 self by means of mental pictures, without the aid of 
 artificial words ; but it is extremely difficult to those 
 who have been artificially educated, and is quite 
 
 o.m. o 
 
194 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 impossible to those who are blinded by self-conceit. 
 In order to see the ideal in the mind of the artist, 
 the worshipper must have reverence, thoughtfulness, 
 and docility. 
 
 " Mysterious, in the blaze of day, 
 Nature pursues her tranquil way ; 
 The veil she wears, if hand profane 
 Should seek to raise, it seeks in vain 
 Though from her spirit thine receives, 
 When, hushed, it listens and believes, 
 Secrets revealed else, vainly sought 
 Her free gift when man questions not. 
 Think not with levers and with screws 
 To wring them out if she refuse." 
 
 Let us suppose a boat to be found wrecked upon an 
 island whose inhabitants are utterly ignorant of balloons, 
 and suppose a balloon with some rents in it, and some 
 ropes broken, and some parts of the car injured, to be 
 found in the boat. How are the people to see the idea 
 that was in the inventor's mind ? 
 
 The anatomical investigator will carefully note the 
 different pieces of which the balloon is composed, and 
 how they are related to one another, and the knowledge 
 derived from his observations will be indispensable when 
 there is a damaged balloon to be repaired ; but if he is 
 only an anatomist he will see no further than the material 
 before him. The structure he is dissecting is a wall to 
 obstruct his vision. The microscopist may tear up a 
 little of each part to examine it more minutely, and so 
 to increase the store of anatomical knowledge. The 
 chemist will analyse the silk, and the ropes, and the 
 
INTUITION. ig5 
 
 various fittings; but his laboratory is his dungeon. 
 These investigators are concerned with dead matter, 
 and are blind to function or life. The physiologist must 
 study function. To him everything must be a work of 
 design. He must ask himself, What was the idea in the 
 mind of the designer ? What is the use or function of 
 the thing ? He must try to see the idea that preceded 
 the material structure. 
 
 How would men proceed if they were earnestly trying 
 to discover the idea in the designer's mind, or the true 
 immaterial origin of the balloon ? The large bag may 
 seem at first sight a convenient place to store provisions, 
 but why should it be attached to a basket or car arranged 
 for men to sit in ? A man does not want to have such 
 a gigantic sack of food tied to his chair. 
 
 When all rents are carefully mended, it seems reason- 
 able to suppose that the great bladder is to be filled 
 with air to keep the boat from sinking ; but the attach- 
 ment is so loosely made that the boat might be capsized 
 or sunk while the bladder is floating at a distance. Why 
 does a man wish to sit in the basket instead of in the 
 boat ? The balloon is found to have no essential con- 
 nection with the boat, but to be something of a different 
 kind. Why is an anchor attached to the balloon ? Why 
 is the basket fastened to the bag ? Why is the material 
 of the bag water-tight or air-tight ? Why is there a 
 valvular opening at one end, and another valve opening 
 inwards in the other ? What is the final cause ? 
 
 It would obviously be folly to take the structure to 
 pieces in order to study each part separately, unless 
 with the object of trying to follow the thoughts of the 
 
 o 2 
 
10,6 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 designer by constructing it again. There is only one 
 balloon, and great care must be taken of it, since a 
 slight injury may destroy the chance of learning the 
 function it was designed to perform, or of seeing the 
 archetypal idea. It would be absurd to examine a nerve 
 with a microscope in order to learn its function, or to 
 dissect a dead body in order to learn the phenomena of 
 life. We must approximate as nearly as possible to 
 archetypal conditions, and study the object in the 
 condition most nearly perfect. It is only by aiming 
 at perfection that we can get any vision of the perfect. 
 
 Having repaired as well as possible all manifest 
 damage, the seekers of the original idea of the balloon 
 try various methods of looking at it in the light of 
 function. Air is blown into it, and tied in, and the 
 balloon is studied carefully from a distance as the work 
 of an intelligent designer. Suddenly a gust of wind 
 blows the immense bladder along, so that it almost 
 carries away those who hold on to the ropes. In his 
 sleep the night after this experience the anxious inquirer 
 seems to feel himself floating away into the clouds, sus- 
 pended from the balloon ; for strange fancies are apt to 
 come in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon 
 men, and the knowledge gained in slumber may be the 
 revelation of a secret that seemed for ever hidden. 
 Reflecting in the morning upon his dream, the fortunate 
 one tries to arrange every rope and valve in harmony 
 with the notion that the balloon is intended to float in 
 air. He had always been familiar with the fact that the 
 air from a chimney tends to ascend, and now he fills 
 the balloon with heated air, Every rope is strained, 
 
INTUITION. 197 
 
 and it is with difficulty that the monster can be pre- 
 vented from ascending. All the parts that seemed so 
 useless and unmeaning, when lying loosely and con- 
 fusedly in a heap, now fit into place, and their function 
 is revealed. The balloon is seen from the stand-point 
 of the designer, or in the light of function. The intel- 
 ligent mind can now rest satisfied, since it knows both 
 the final and the formal cause. 
 
 In his lectures on " Man's Place in Nature," the late 
 Professor Huxley says : " The question of questions for 
 mankind the problem which underlies all others, and 
 is more deeply interesting than any other is the ascer- 
 tainment of the place which man occupies in Nature, 
 and of his relations to the universe of things. Whence 
 our race has come ; what are the limits of our power 
 over Nature, and of Nature's power over us ; to what 
 goal we are tending ; are the problems which present 
 themselves anew and with undiminished interest to 
 every man born into the world." These words express 
 a deep-seated desire to see from the stand-point of the 
 Designer ; and yet the brilliant expounder of compara- 
 tive anatomy concentrated his gaze upon the material, 
 so that it was impossible for him to see the archetypal 
 idea. The scalpel and microscope proved as useless as 
 the lever and screw. The study of the development of 
 the material parts from their primary atoms would not 
 assist one in the slightest degree to discover the use of 
 the balloon ; whereas the use of it might be understood, 
 and the originating idea clearly seen, without any know- 
 ledge of its development or its miscroscopic structure. 
 The Perfect Man may be revealed to babes and sucklings 
 
10,8 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 in scientific knowledge while great scholars seek in 
 vain. 
 
 Why does man exist ? What is his origin, and his 
 hereditary endowment ? What is his relation to the 
 universe ? To whom shall we go for wisdom ? Huxley 
 tells us that : " The sceptics end in the infidelity which 
 asserts the problem to be insoluble, or in the atheism 
 which denies the existence of any orderly and progres- 
 sive governance of things ; the men of genius propound 
 solutions which grow into systems of theology or of 
 philosophy, or, veiled in musical language which 
 suggests more than it asserts, take the shape of the 
 poetry of an epoch." Yet the replies of genius are not 
 regarded as satisfactory by the brilliant evolutionist ; 
 for he says that each reply of genius to the great ques- 
 tion is merely an approximation to the truth, tolerable 
 only owing to the ignorance of those who accept it, and 
 wholly intolerable when tested by larger knowledge. 
 Thus we are not comforted by any hope of satisfaction, 
 though the question is admitted to be more important 
 than all others ; but it is a great mistake to suppose that 
 any utterance of real genius can ever become intolerable, 
 or prove false, no matter how much the advance in 
 knowledge, or that any approximation to the truth will 
 ever fail to be regarded with sympathy and respect by 
 every earnest seeker of the Way. 
 
 The student of the present day is taught that the 
 best means of solving the problem of man's existence 
 and place in nature is to keep attention centred upon 
 the idea of evolution ; but one might as well tell a 
 mariner that the best way to guide his vessel is by 
 
intuition. igg 
 
 gazing into space in search of cosmic dust. The 
 solid sun and stars must be definitely recognised and 
 accurately observed if the navigator would escape 
 destruction ; and all science depends upon clear know- 
 ledge of archetypal ideas, since these alone provide a 
 sure foundation for our thoughts. An archetypal idea 
 implies definiteness of purpose and completeness of 
 form in the mind of the designer. The purpose deter- 
 mines the form, so that every modification of purpose 
 necessitates corresponding modification of form, and 
 indefiniteness of purpose must cause incompleteness of 
 form. In the Divine Mind all forms are perfect accord- 
 ing to their purpose ; and hence the only path to true 
 wisdom and knowledge lies in endeavouring to see 
 everything in a perfect state. 
 
 The idea of perfection is innate, and anyone who 
 does not possess it is devoid of intelligence. A man's 
 place in the scale of intelligent beings is determined by 
 the number and complexity of the perfect ideals he can 
 realise. One of the earliest and simplest evidences of 
 human intelligence is the deliberate attempt to make a 
 crooked object straight ; and it signifies that the child 
 is comparing the imperfect object with the perfect 
 internal form, and feels a desire to realise the ideal. 
 Every circle that we can make is imperfect, and its 
 circumference must consist of a succession of straight 
 lines ; yet we have the idea of the perfect circle within 
 us, and always compare what is imperfect with the 
 innate standard. We can only recognise the imperfect 
 in so far as we have within ourselves a vision of the 
 perfect. 
 
200 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 The use or function of an object, or its final cause, is 
 the most important thing that we can learn regarding 
 it ; and a child that can rest satisfied without knowing 
 the use of the instruments with which it is surrounded 
 is imbecile. Those who need water must learn the use 
 of the pump, and then they may feel comfortable, even 
 though ignorant of its composition and structure. Man 
 must study himself as a work of design in order to learn 
 the conditions to be fulfilled so as to secure satisfaction 
 and happiness in life. The first question the true 
 psychologist must ask himself, and answer to his pupils, 
 is, What is the chief end of man ? Then he may have 
 vision to see the Formal Cause. 
 
 Life is an insoluble puzzle, and all study is merely 
 the eating of ashes, so long as man is ignorant of the 
 object of his existence ; and hence there are multitudes 
 of very clever men and women to whom the past seems 
 a nightmare of disappointed hopes, and the future a 
 wilderness of gloom containing possibilities of unending 
 misery. What a wretched, crippling state of existence 
 it must be to have no vision of the Grand Design, and 
 no confidence in the future ! There can be no adequate 
 motive for action, and the desire to continue to live 
 until miserable with age and infirmity is madness. The 
 old invalid who has no true knowledge is compelled to 
 exclaim, " Well, doctor, it does seem stupid to go on 
 trying to live like this ; and it puzzles me night and 
 day to think what on earth the Unknowable meant by 
 sending me here." Herbert Spencer might try to 
 satisfy the inquirer by saying that life is simply the com- 
 bination of heterogeneous changes in correspondence 
 
INTUITION. 201 
 
 with external co-existences and sequences, and that 
 consciousness is constituted by sensations communi- 
 cated to the chief nervous centres ; so that the state of 
 consciousness described as uncomfortable is merely 
 evidence that the condition of final equilibration among 
 the molecules, whose perturbations cause the sensations, 
 has not been attained. The attempt to instruct without 
 knowledge of the formal or final cause of man could 
 only produce a sad despairing gaze at the well-meaning 
 potential philosopher unable to enlighten because him- 
 self devoid of light, and ignorant of the true philosophy 
 which deals with causes that are eternal in essence. 
 
 How can anyone learn to see the Archetypal Ideal, 
 or Formal Cause, of man ? The balloon would have 
 remained an apparently objectless and tangled evidence 
 of capricious folly if an effort had not been made to 
 determine its use. The various parts had to be com- 
 pared with ideals already existing in the mind of the 
 investigator, and patient labour had to be undertaken 
 to bring each part as nearly as possible into its ideal 
 state. The valve had to be put in action as a valve, 
 the ropes that hung in loose confusion had to be put on 
 the stretch, the bag had to be distended. We must 
 place ourselves under the necessary conditions for see- 
 ing, and then the flash of inspiration will unite all com- 
 plex parts into one harmonious whole by bringing into 
 relief the innate idea previously embedded in the mind. 
 Distend the imagination according to its design in true 
 worship of God, and the vision of the Perfect accom- 
 panies the act. 
 
 We possess no true knowledge until we have seen 
 
202 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 from the point of view of the designer. Man seems a 
 meaningless mass of protoplasm, and his life of no value 
 whatever, until the purpose of his creation is recognised. 
 Thousands of millions of mere human animals may live 
 and die with no more consequence to the welfare and 
 progress of humanity than if they had been so many 
 flies ; and they can hardly be reckoned as human beings 
 so long as they are ignorant of their responsibility to 
 the Creator. 
 
 The wise man is the man who has vision (wision) ; 
 and there can be no true wisdom without perception 
 of perfect archetypes. A scholar has too often very 
 defective vision, and the child may see far better than 
 his teachers. No study of books can give wisdom ; nor 
 can the most accurate knowledge and painstaking 
 investigation of nature, if the mind is not constantly 
 occupied by the thought of the Designer. Thus the 
 possessor of the most powerful intellect and the most 
 extensive erudition may be devoid of wisdom. So long 
 as we do not know what a machine was made for, all 
 our attempts to use it or to criticise it are mere folly ; 
 and the wisdom of those wise only in their own conceit 
 is brought to nought by the simplicity of the child who 
 asks the designer to explain it to him. 
 
 The fear of the Lord is said to be the beginning of 
 wisdom, since we shall not sincerely try to learn the 
 design until we have respect for the Designer, and 
 desire to be taught by Him. " If any of you lacketh 
 wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally 
 and upbraideth not ; and it shall be given him." Thus 
 the simple and easy way, and the only way, to get 
 
INTUITION. 203 
 
 wisdom is to live with the Infallible Designer as a 
 pupil ; but most men are so stupidly conceited and 
 obstinate that they worry and exhaust themselves in 
 blundering efforts to prove their own cleverness and 
 independence, instead of submitting to be taught as 
 children. The toiling wanderers are unscientific and 
 irrational in their struggles to account for the origin 
 and construction of a machine without thinking of the 
 purpose for which it was made ; and they are like men 
 attempting to make cisterns of sand without having any 
 notion of the form the vessel is to assume, and without 
 any cement, or formative idea, to bind the particles of 
 sand together. 
 
 The secret of secrets is to be learned by spiritual 
 vision, or by seeing from the stand-point of the Creator ; 
 but, though the secret is open to all, no man can reveal 
 it to another, or can explain how he sees. All who 
 have true spiritual vision recognise one another as 
 brethren ; and they have been described as a peculiar 
 people, and as a royal priesthood. They are the only 
 possessors of wisdom, and are the aristocracy of the 
 world whose authority never dies. Some men see 
 much better than others, but every seer who has once 
 had a glimpse of an archetypal idea, though it be only 
 that of the Square, has some knowledge of the " Word 
 that endures for ever." Common men must accept 
 blindly the teaching of those who see ; for spiritual 
 vision provides the only stable foundation upon 
 which society can found its laws or reason build up 
 science. 
 
 Many attempts have been made by the blind to 
 
204 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 discover the secret of those who have vision ; and they 
 have even crucified and burned those whom they felt to 
 be their superiors. Tradition says that Hiram was 
 murdered because his murderers could not extract from 
 him the wisdom which they felt that he possessed by 
 some mysterious method of perception ; for the com- 
 mon animal man who cannot see is yet conscious of the 
 existence of an impassable gulf between him and the 
 elect who talk with one another of the marvellous 
 phenomena of vision, and the ignorant man animated 
 by the devil of conceit longs to degrade and destroy 
 anyone whose nobility makes him contemptible by con- 
 trast. From the beginning of history it has always 
 been true that 
 
 "Against the poets their own arms they turned, 
 Sure to hate most the men from whom they learned." 
 
 A true prophet is an explorer of the spiritual world 
 who communes with the Grand Architect, and thus 
 treats human teachers as of secondary importance ; so 
 that he is often misunderstood by his contemporaries, 
 and may be compelled to struggle with poverty and 
 persecution, or to live in a desert of sorrowful solitude, 
 because all his efforts to teach the ignorant, who cannot 
 or will not learn, are unavailing. The merit of a dis- 
 coverer consists in his penetrating the unknown hostile 
 and inhospitable regions, and overcoming obstacles 
 which were insurmountable by ordinary men ; and the 
 results of exploration may seem inconsistent with the 
 experience of those who have remained fixed in one 
 locality. 
 
INTUITION. 205 
 
 The original seer either reveals a new truth, or a new 
 aspect of a recognised truth ; and however contemptible 
 he may appear for a time, it is very remarkable that 
 nothing can erase his name from the records of history 
 which mankind deem worthy of preservation. Thousands 
 of later travellers know more of Asia than Marco Polo, 
 and more of Africa than Mungo Park, yet the first 
 adventurers are held in renown by each succeeding 
 generation ; and so we find the names of Adam, and 
 Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and David, and all 
 the original seers of the ancient world, familiar to every 
 child. Socrates and Plato recorded their visions of 
 archetypal ideas, and consequently their names can 
 never die. Athanasius, and Shakespeare, and Goethe, 
 and Carlyle, had many faults, but they had true original 
 visions; and those visions are every day becoming 
 brighter and brighter, and more and more beautiful, as 
 they shine upon the page of time illumined by the 
 concentrated and ever-increasing light of human know- 
 ledge. The infallible seer, or the true prophet, is he 
 who describes accurately what he has seen, and who 
 never tries to describe anything that he has not seen 
 clearly. He knows when he knows. 
 
 It may seem mere waste of time to discuss a method 
 of learning which can neither be explained nor taught, 
 and the result of which is the most absolute dogmatism. 
 The seer must be dogmatic, and it is folly to try to 
 reason with him regarding the reality of his vision ; 
 just as when a man is quite convinced that he sees an 
 elephant, and knows that he has made a long journey 
 upon its back, it is folly to persuade him that he is 
 
206 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 under a delusion. The common experience of the seer 
 is to find his neighbours riding upon his elephant while 
 denying its very existence. Is there no way of explain- 
 ing what is meant by spiritual vision, or of helping 
 students to acquire it ? Must the prophet always be 
 a god to the blind who accept his message, and 
 an insane dreamer to those who do not know their 
 blindness ? 
 
 Though we cannot give a man vision we can tell him 
 the conditions to be observed in order to obtain the gift 
 of sight ; and we may feel assured that the Creator will 
 open the eyes of everyone who conforms to the regula- 
 tions laid down for obtaining the blessing, just as 
 certainly as He makes water flow up a hill when the 
 prescribed arrangement of vacuum and valve is main- 
 tained. Every man is gifted with capacity to perceive 
 the Light, but most men prefer the darkness, and refuse 
 to open their spiritual eyes, so that they become weak 
 or diseased. If we could define the laws which govern 
 the acquisition of spiritual vision, and could convince 
 all men that the neglect to obey those laws is quite as 
 irrational as neglect to preserve the physical eyesight, 
 then we might produce a nation of prophets, and 
 make the whole people a royal priesthood, born again. 
 
 We must first know that we are ignorant, and must 
 honestly desire to learn ; and our ears must be open to 
 the slightest whisper of instruction from whatever 
 direction it may come. " He that hath ears to hear let 
 him hear." If we believe that an object is merely the 
 product of blind force, it can never have any meaning 
 for us, and we shall not see its archetypal idea. We 
 
INTUITION. 207 
 
 must study it as a work of design, and must long to be 
 instructed by the designer. Thus our minds become 
 attuned to sympathy with the mind of the designer, so 
 that the mysterious spiritual atmosphere may convey 
 some impulse to awaken the corresponding thought in 
 us; and a fundamental unison having been established, 
 a progressive accordance may proclaim the harmonious 
 succession of ideas involved in the construction of the 
 work. 
 
 In order that we may understand the work of an 
 architect it is obvious that his mind must be similarly 
 constituted to our own, and that he should be willing 
 to teach us ; otherwise, he might construct something 
 so mysteriously complicated that we could not discover 
 any evidence of his design or workmanship, and might 
 fancy the whole organic body to be an inorganic mass. 
 He may be expected to perform the work so that his 
 children may sympathise with his ideas, and may learn 
 to become architects. Thus he must make a series of 
 structures progressing in complexity, from the simple 
 single room to the elaborate palace, with the same 
 fundamental principles governing all. Those who object 
 to Christianity because of its anthropomorphism can 
 have no rational notion of the meaning of religion. 
 Man must be made in the image of the God he 
 worships. 
 
 The architect sees in his mind the picture, or the 
 complete archetypal idea or form, of the building which 
 he intends to construct ; and he might cement it all 
 together so that no individual parts could be detected. 
 The work would then seem to have been cast, and not 
 
208 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 built, and no one might be able to discover the relations 
 of the parts or the method of joining them together. 
 Fortunately a father deals more sympathetically with 
 his children, so that they have no difficulty in learning 
 if they are willing. As soon as the child really knows 
 any of his father's work, it becomes impossible for him 
 to fancy that one building grows into another without 
 any special interference ; and he could -not be so silly 
 as to suppose that the presence of the same kind of 
 pillars and arches in a cathedral as he had previously 
 seen in a cottage is proof that a cottage grew into a 
 cathedral as a tree grows from its seed. He knows that 
 each building is the revelation of an idea. 
 
 If we really know the architect, it is very easy to 
 sympathise with his ideas and to know his meaning ; 
 and sympathy with his purposes is proof that we know 
 him. We must know something of his character, and 
 the general tenor of his thoughts, before we can get 
 any satisfactory clue to the idea that was in his mind 
 when he designed a building ; otherwise, we might 
 fancy a cathedral to be a monstrously ridiculous stable, 
 or might even fancy that a mass of ruins represents his 
 ideas and intentions. Through such ignorance the 
 most horrible crimes have been committed in the name 
 of religion. It is always a pleasure to the architect to 
 teach those who are anxious to learn, and to employ 
 them as fellow- workers ; and it is always a source of 
 the greatest delight to children to be permitted to help 
 in the work of construction. . 
 
 The original design may be in its essence easy of 
 comprehension by a child, and yet may be so extensive 
 
INTUITION. 209 
 
 and complicated that a whole lifetime may be needed 
 to discover its intricate relations. The central idea 
 must never be lost sight of when we are investigating 
 portions of the work which seem disconnected ; for it is 
 only by strict obedience and patient study that we can 
 learn the marvellous beauties of harmony in the com- 
 plexity which seems at first bewildering and unmeaning. 
 There may be a complicated network of arches which 
 cannot all be seen at once by the physical eye, and the 
 construction of which involves mathematical calcula- 
 tions which the mason cannot comprehend ; but here 
 the inner eye of the imagination may be brought into 
 use, and the structure may be looked at in the field 
 of Space. This is the way to see in the field of 
 the imagination of the architect, where physical 
 obstacles no longer exist, and a number of different 
 buildings, with their inmates, may be seen at once. 
 It is the only certain method of seeing round all 
 corners. 
 
 The mathematical principles and calculations involved 
 in the design may be beyond the intellectual grasp of 
 many who are anxious to do their best to learn ; yet 
 much may be known and much good work may be done 
 by those who simply obey laws learned by observation 
 and experiment, without definitely understanding why 
 the different parts observed have been selected to 
 support and secure one another in position. Funda- 
 mental principles must, however, be understood by a 
 master mason ; and mere experimental teaching is 
 unsatisfactory to anyone who desires to be intimately 
 acquainted with the architect, and to enjoy his friend- 
 
 o.m. p 
 
210 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 ship. The deepest communion of souls requires the 
 most profound appreciation of thoughts. 
 
 The cultivated intellect and healthy imagination yield 
 intellectual intuition, by which we see the fragments 
 illuminated in the distance, and uniting in obedience to 
 the mystical attraction of the invisible form. The man 
 of intuition sees the useful engine, or the perfect 
 building, where the common man sees unmeaning 
 fragments ; and he is apt to feel some pitying contempt 
 for those whose gaze is concentrated on the fragments, 
 and who are perpetually discussing their accidental 
 changes of appearance without the faintest idea of their 
 purpose in the complete design. 
 
 " How less than nothing can avail 
 These tricks of dabbling and detail ! " 
 
 It is impossible to know with certainty what man was 
 made for until we have seen the Archetypal Man, and 
 then all is clear. The chief end of man is to use the 
 Compass and Square, and to rejoice in communion with 
 God while doing so. The Garden is thus cultivated. 
 That is the central idea which must always be kept in 
 mind by anyone desirous of gaining even the most 
 elementary notion of man's place in nature. 
 
 The Archetypal Man is recognised by the spiritual or 
 true genius. Many attempts have been made to define 
 and to explain genius. For true knowledge we must 
 always go back to primitive man, the inventor of words. 
 The word genius originally meant the tutelary deity 
 or guardian spirit, and is derived from the root gen, 
 
INTUITION. 211 
 
 which involves the idea of begetting or creating. The 
 genius is the ingenuous, ingenious, and genuine man. 
 
 It is obvious that the inventor of a complicated 
 machine must be best able to teach a workman how to 
 use it, and how to guard against injuring himself by 
 mismanagement. When a man is able to understand 
 the purpose, or final cause, of the machine, he is able 
 to converse with the genius of it. The intellectual 
 genius sees the purpose of one of the machines of 
 Nature's manufacture, and is to some extent able to 
 converse with the Deity. We may say that a genius 
 has an original view of the truth regarding something in 
 Nature ; and the seeing man is born, not made. 
 
 The spiritual genius is inspired, or feels within him- 
 self a spirit partaking of the nature of the Creative 
 Spirit. He sees something, however partially, from the 
 stand-point of the Designer. He is a man who has 
 intuition, or who sees into things. 
 
 We may also define a spiritual genius as a man who 
 has an original vision of an archetypal idea. He has 
 some knowledge of formal and final causes, or has seen 
 something in its perfect working condition. The 
 prophet sees something in the light of the Creative 
 Mind. Water may be seen as knowledge. He may 
 only have a faint glimpse of one aspect of that which 
 is many-sided, and thus genius may vary greatly in its 
 manifestation ; but, however faint the vision, he is able 
 to recognise some fundamental relations not visible to 
 common men, and he can improve his vision by 
 communing with God. He has seen a little behind the 
 veil, or into the soul of things. 
 
 p 2 
 
212 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 A skilful mechanical painter may produce striking 
 likenesses of surrounding objects without being capable 
 of knowing the meaning of genius. The painter of 
 genius sees life, and emotion, and character, behind the 
 covering ; and he recognises the form or dress invented 
 by the Creator as the appropriate means of expressing 
 and revealing the invisible. Even the barren mountain 
 is perceived to be the revelation of a thought, and the 
 bush in the desert is no longer a mere material object, 
 but a glowing manifestation of Infinite Power, Wisdom, 
 and Love. 
 
 A man may possess extraordinary talents, and may 
 be distinguished for intellectual ability, and yet he 
 cannot thereby obtain genius. The first conception of 
 a pump may have been the work of a genius; but 
 thousands of students who have not genius may have 
 more extensive knowledge of physics than the inventor 
 of the pump. The inventor of an appropriate word for 
 an original idea must have genius ; and yet men who 
 have no genius may learn words until they obtain the 
 greatest fame for knowledge, and are held in reverence 
 as distinguished teachers. The true wisdom is gained 
 not by learning words, but by communing with the 
 Designer; and hence the Psalmist says, " I have more 
 understanding than my teachers, for Thy testimonies 
 are my study." This was the saying of a genius. 
 
 The mere human animal is conscious of a great 
 diversity in the sounds which he hears. The musical 
 genius hears a melody formed by a number of these 
 sounds. Each succeeding musical genius has an 
 advantage over his predecessors, so that instead of 
 
INTUITION. 213 
 
 merely combining a few sounds, he may be able to 
 combine in harmony many of the combinations learned 
 from his teachers. The weaver has been provided with 
 better material and more elaborate machinery by the 
 genius and labour of his fathers : yet self-conceit may 
 strangle gratitude. 
 
 We may regard the universe as bathed in a spiritual 
 ether, which corresponds to the Imagination of God, 
 and of which the ether of physical science is the 
 symbol. As the physical ether is continually moving 
 with vibrations which produce for us the phenomena 
 of light and electricity, so the spiritual ether is always 
 moving with the thoughts of God. The animal lives 
 by means of the vibrations of the physical ether, and 
 yet knows nothing, and cares nothing, about them. 
 Men cannot possess any conscious intelligence except 
 by means of the spiritual ether ; and yet the merely 
 intellectual man knows nothing of God. The genius 
 is a man with some avenue of his soul open to the 
 Divine influence, and some portion of his physical 
 perceptive centres responsive to certain of the impulses 
 by which the thoughts of God are revealed. A mathe- 
 matical prodigy sees more than ordinary men of the 
 sweep of God's vision in dealing with numbers, though 
 he may not think of God ; but if he cultivates his 
 special powers, and seeks communion with the Creator, 
 he may get a glimpse of the marvellous importance of 
 numbers in the substratum of all things. The com- 
 poser of the most soul-stirring sacred music seems to 
 accomplish his work by seeking harmony with the 
 Imagination of God, so that he becomes the recorder 
 
214 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 of the heavenly music always vibrating in the spiritual 
 ether. 
 
 The genius must have a truthful mind ; and to be a 
 poet he must have keen powers of observation, stimu- 
 lated by ardent love of Nature. His memory is for 
 pictures rather than for words; and the pictures are 
 distinctly and vividly called up in the field of imagination 
 to be compared with the ideals existing there. The 
 Circle and the Square in his mind reveal deformities 
 and defects in the pictures; and to be a successful 
 genius, he must work with all his might to reveal the 
 Ideals by means of imperfect materials, even though 
 
 " That type of Perfect in his mind, 
 In Nature can he nowhere find." 
 
 In order that he may accomplish much the genius 
 must have liberal education, and leisure from exhausting 
 toil for necessaries of life ; though, for the acquirement 
 of sound sense, it seems necessary that a man should 
 in youth be compelled to stand by himself without any 
 aid from servants. Education and learning enable him 
 to throw light from many points upon the subject of 
 his meditation, and so to reveal his thoughts more 
 clearly. A man of great potential genius, but without 
 education or opportunity, will be recognised as a 
 prophet by his fellows, but may not make any visible 
 permanent impression upon the growth of thought. 
 Hence it may be said of any ''Country Churchyard" 
 
 11 Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 
 
 Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ; 
 Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed, 
 Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre : 
 
INTUITION. 215 
 
 " But knowledge to their eyes her ample page, 
 Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll ; 
 Chill penury repressed their noble rage, 
 And froze the genial current of the soul." 
 
 Although the common animal man has not spiritual 
 vision, he is capable of being taught the knowledge 
 which the genius has obtained by intutition, and thus 
 all mankind apparently progress in wisdom. The pro- 
 gress is only apparent ; for knowledge may be accumu- 
 lated while wisdom positively diminishes. We may 
 employ more machines without increasing our under- 
 standing of them. We become accustomed to hear and 
 to repeat so many words that there is not opportunity 
 or desire for the reflection necessary to enable us to 
 understand the thoughts of those who originated the 
 words. It is when meditating in solitude upon the 
 work of a genius in sympathy with his spirit that a 
 gleam of light is most likely to flash upon the mind, 
 revealing to us something of the vision which he 
 attempted to describe ; and then we know him for 
 ever after as a kindred spirit. We are able to respond 
 to the same vibrations in the spiritual ether. Nature 
 has revealed herself to us both, and we feel ourselves 
 children of the One Father. Thus it is said of those 
 who have recognised Christ as Archetypal Emotion : 
 
 " Sometimes a light surprises 
 The Christian while he sings ; 
 It is the Lord who rises 
 With healing in His wings." 
 
 Genius implies an illumination of the spirit ; and, 
 consequently, all the mental faculties must be to some 
 
2l6 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 extent illuminated, though dominant faculties will be 
 specially brightened. Hence genius may be mainly 
 intellectual ; or it may be mainly emotional ; or it may 
 be the harmonical product of sound intellect and 
 emotion, which is described as moral. The scientific 
 inventor has intellectual genius, while the poet has 
 usually emotion specially intense. The prophet, or 
 the moral genius, must see the harmony which results 
 from the normal inter-action of intellect and emotion, 
 and is therefore the nearest to the Divine Mind. He is 
 the truly great genius. 
 
 All that mankind owes to Newton was the result of 
 his earnestness in trying to discover archetypal ideas, 
 or how God made things. His intellect was dominant, 
 and was specially illuminated. Harvey was first led 
 to think of the circulation of the blood by wondering 
 why God put so many valves in the veins ; for, as he 
 said, " so provident a cause as Nature had not placed 
 so many valves without design." He longed to learn 
 final causes. Two of the most eminent men of intel- 
 lectual genius of the present day are Lord Kelvin and 
 Edison ; and any success they have had in learning the 
 secrets of Nature has been due to the simple honesty 
 with which they have questioned the Divine Mind. 
 They try to see from the stand-point of the Creator ; 
 and they could invent nothing if it were not for the 
 undoubting certainty with which they regard the 
 universe as the invention of a Benevolent Personal 
 Ruler. It is only those who have learned as parrots 
 what pothers have revealed who can doubt the evidence 
 of design. Thegenuine inventor, whether he confesses 
 
INTUITION. 217 
 
 the fact or not, can only learn by interrogating the 
 Designer. 
 
 The difference between the man of genius and the 
 common animal man is in some respects as great as 
 the difference between the animal man and a horse or 
 dog. The genius walks with Adam in the Garden, and 
 converses with God. The brute does not even know 
 that he is in a garden, and cannot understand that 
 the food which has preserved him from starvation has 
 been obtained for him by the cultivator of the soil. 
 All knowledge that makes man superior to the beasts 
 has been given to us by genius. The man of genius 
 originates theology and religion, and he invents 
 language, and numbers, and writing, and astronomy, 
 and everything of value for the progress of civilisation. 
 
 The animal man is superior to the brute in possessing 
 capacity for learning to make use of the knowledge which 
 the man of genius teaches him. 
 
 The moral genius, or the prophet, knows by intuition, 
 which is the infallible ground of certainty ; and, there- 
 fore, his belief regarding the origin and nature of man, 
 and his relation to the universe and to God, must be 
 accepted as incontrovertible dogma by the mere human 
 animals who have no knowledge of themselves. Nations 
 are great in proportion to the number of men of genius 
 they possess ; for the genius is the only wise man, or 
 the only man who knows what is Truth, and upon him 
 depend all civilisation and progress. Hence the first 
 subject of study for all patriots, and for all sensible men, 
 must be how best to promote the development, and, if 
 possible, the production of men of genius. When the 
 
2l8 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Light shall shine clearly enough to make all deformities 
 plainly manifest, the man of the earth will slink into a 
 cave to die, while the children of Light shall inherit all 
 things. 
 
 Moral genius is an illumination of the spirit, or is the 
 power of seeing in the spiritual plane of being, which 
 is above the highest plane appreciated by mere human 
 animals. The animal man does not know the spiritual 
 world, and does not consciously possess a spirit. "The 
 wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the 
 sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and 
 whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of the 
 spirit." No man can tell how he is conscious of the 
 possession of life, or how the child inherits something 
 of the qualities of his parent. The genius inherits some 
 of the ability of ancestors who had been born of the 
 Spirit. 
 
 A calculating boy may seem to have nothing in 
 common with what we usually recognise as character- 
 istic of spiritual life, and he has not genius in the full 
 sense of the word ; yet the difference between him and 
 common men is due to his being endowed with some 
 of the superior vision originally bestowed upon Adam, 
 and necessarily possessed by primitive man. A cal- 
 culating boy has been able to recognise prime numbers 
 as if by instinct, even when the numbers extended to 
 millions. Now, given a number of six figures to deter- 
 mine whether it is a prime number, the most accom- 
 plished mathematician, with the largest brain and most 
 powerful intellect, finds it necessary to make long and 
 laborious calculations, and even then may be doubtful 
 
INTUITION. 219 
 
 of the result. No development of intellect can produce 
 genius. In our stupidity we would naturally say that 
 it is utterly impossible for a boy with no special training 
 to know, by a momentary consideration, what men of 
 the greatest intellect can only determine by great labour. 
 Yet there is no doubt of the fact ; and the boy cannot 
 tell how he knows. He sees. 
 
 We are gradually beginning to realise something of 
 the enormous superiority of primitive man, and yet we 
 are incapable of understanding the marvellous feats 
 accomplished by those who conversed with God 
 without the cramping and distorting medium of 
 language. Primitive man invented numbers, and 
 methods of calculating ; and those who are taught 
 arithmetic from childhood cannot easily imagine what 
 it was to see phenomena before there were either words 
 or numbers. Each man who sees a little may help 
 others onward by recording what he sees ; and, when 
 spiritual sense is diligently cultivated, mankind may 
 recover the power of seeing the stars as moving elements 
 in the vast machinery of the universe with definite moral 
 significance. 
 
 Language is the tardy and halting interpreter of 
 thought. We strive to express what is inexpressible. 
 No words can reveal the profoundest thoughts of the 
 philosopher or the deepest feelings of the lover. The 
 words are as marks by the roadside to let us know that 
 another has trodden the same path, and has obtained 
 glimpses of the same scenery ; but it is only as we rise to 
 the same height that we can understand the beauty and 
 extent of the vision which the genius has tried to describe. 
 
220 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Ability to recognise poetic or moral genius depends 
 upon what St. Paul described as the gift of the dis- 
 cerning of spirits; but though this power is a gift, it 
 must be carefully cultivated in order to make it exten- 
 sively effective. Much education is needed to enable 
 even a gifted man to appreciate the language employed 
 by a Browning or a Tennyson ; and owing to the 
 obscurities of language kindred spirits often remain 
 total strangers. 
 
 Genius is a superior or sublimed form of sensitive- 
 ness ; or it may be said to be a sublimed instinct. 
 Some, who have tried to account for it without knowing 
 what it means, have said that it is due to hypertrophy 
 of certain psychic centres, or to exaggerated develop- 
 ment of one faculty ; but the genius has ears to hear 
 something which the most clever animal man cannot 
 possibly be made to hear by any development of his 
 ears. The genius divines facts ; and divining properly 
 understood means conversing with the Creator. The 
 common man gains knowledge by voluntary efforts 
 to learn what the genius teaches ; the genius may 
 involuntarily hear or see with spiritual sense. 
 
 All mental processes are carried on by means of the 
 brain, and the genius probably employs some specialised 
 cells which respond to the higher aspirations of the 
 spirit. Concentration of attention is particularly 
 needed ; and the genius who persistently endeavours 
 to compose music, or to write poetry, or to reveal some 
 complex ideal, while harassed by cares, must cause 
 irritation and congestion of the most delicate nervous 
 structures, which may ultimately lead to apoplexy or 
 
INTUITION. 221 
 
 degeneration of brain. The mental failure of Sir 
 Walter Scott is regarded by some as evidence of the 
 dependence of genius on a morbid state of the brain. 
 Man alone overstrains his brain ; but it does not follow 
 that animals are superior in nature. 
 
 No man is perfect, and therefore no genius is perfect. 
 The intellectual genius may have his attention so 
 engrossed with calculations that he neglects the 
 emotional part of his nature ; while the musician or 
 poet may have so much delight in cultivating his 
 special gift that he has no leisure to study mathematics, 
 and probably has neither inclination nor ability to 
 solve difficult problems. A genius, like other men, 
 may have utterly erroneous notions on subjects which 
 he does not understand ; for genius does not originate 
 knowledge, though it illuminates knowledge so as to 
 make it real. 
 
 The genius may be precocious as a child, or he may 
 have a reputation for stupidity at school. He may 
 have no larger and no smaller brain than other men, 
 and there is nothing distinctive in the form of his head 
 or body. A dwarf may see as well as a giant. A 
 partial genius, such as a calculating boy, may be unable 
 to learn music or logic. The prophetic genius must 
 have sound knowledge and good reasoning power ; and 
 he must, above all things, have a truthful mind. No 
 man who is a liar or a perverter of the truth can 
 possibly be a genius in the true sense of the word, 
 however he may excel in emotional expression or 
 brilliant word-painting. 
 
 The poetic genius sees a spiritual truth revealed by 
 
222 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 natural phenomena. The universe is to him a collection 
 of symbols of the real world which is spiritual. Hence 
 he seems out of his mind to the common man ; for his 
 spirit in soaring to the highest realm of ideas must go 
 entirely beyond the boundaries known to the mere 
 reason. He may say that he has been caught up in 
 the seventh heaven, or that he has been in a state of 
 rapture, or in a state of sacred delirium, but no mode 
 of expression he can employ will enable the ordinary 
 human animal to know what he means. Spirit needs 
 spirit for a fellow. 
 
 The primitive man lived in a transparent house, so 
 that he was able to see the spiritual world around him. 
 Spirit was compelled to speak with spirit, because there 
 were no words to intervene. The words invented by 
 the Adamites were transparent to the inventors and to 
 those who took the pains to inquire their meaning; 
 but as population increased there were many children 
 who devoted themselves to the gratification of their 
 senses, and neglected spiritual things. Words which 
 were mere conventional signs, and not transparent, 
 were then invented; and all luminous words became 
 opaque as soon as their spiritual significance was 
 forgotten. 
 
 Power to invent words is one of the evidences of the 
 superiority of man over all animals, and each inventor 
 of a word was proud of his work. Knowledge of words, 
 even when only conventional signs, enabled a man to 
 converse with others regarding his physical surround- 
 ings and bodily wants, and increased his circle of 
 acquaintances and allies ; so that the acquisition of 
 
INTUITION. 223 
 
 words became one of the great means of gaining 
 distinction and influence. 
 
 Words that were only conventional signs, or that 
 were opaque to the users, did not reveal any spiritual 
 truth, and did not necessarily correspond to thoughts 
 in the mind of the utterer ; and hence men began to 
 distrust each other, and finally quarrelled at Babel. In 
 our language, when one says to another, " I beg your 
 pardon," he may mean to express regret for causing 
 inconvenience, or he may mean, " You are a liar ! " 
 The meaning depends upon the spirit. The use of 
 opaque words causes degeneracy of the spiritual senses, 
 so that we have become inferior to animals in ability 
 to recognise the feelings and intentions of others. We 
 have become the puppets of the actor, the hypocrite, 
 and the swindler. 
 
 Primitive man decorated his transparent walls with 
 the words he accumulated ; and thus he shut out the 
 light. Generation after generation went on piling layer 
 after layer until all was darkness, except in a few parts 
 of the roof where some of the original transparent 
 words still transmitted and reflected a few of the 
 beams from the brilliant sunshine outside. By existence 
 in the dark the vast majority of mankind lost the power 
 of seeing : and it was only men of moral genius, such 
 as the prophets, who were able to recognise the rays 
 of light that penetrated the roof. The mass of the 
 people lived in the dungeon, and were filled with 
 inexplicable terror of the unseen. The Light of the 
 World shone upon the words so brightly that those 
 which had been transparent were again seen through 
 
224 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 clearly by men born of the Spirit, while words which 
 were only conventional signs were recognised as mere 
 counters. 
 
 One man of genius may have his mind altogether 
 illuminated, so that there is no darkness around him, 
 though there may be clouds. Poets like Scott, and 
 Byron, and Shelley, and Keats, may be regarded as 
 existing in a dim twilight, while Shakespeare and 
 Goethe, and some later poets, approached more nearly 
 to the clear vision of the Hebrew prophets. Such a 
 genius as a calculating boy may have the greater part 
 of his dwelling quite dark though he is able to see 
 through one crevice. It is said that Archbishop 
 Whateley was a calculating genius when a boy, but 
 the artificial words with which he was plastered over 
 in the name of education apparently extinguished his 
 special gift. 
 
 Poets are men of genius who deal with words, and 
 they excel in proportion to the clearness of their vision. 
 They are said to have lucidity of thought when their 
 work is genuine ; but they often string together many 
 words which are not transparent, and thus obscure 
 their best work by efforts to gain admiration or profit 
 by increasing bulk. The arranging and re-arranging of 
 the words with which we are surrounded has become 
 the life-work of multitudes ; and it is only the instinct 
 of genius that can tell whether a writer really saw 
 through his words before employing them. When 
 Shelley compared the skylark to a cloud of fire, he was 
 simply finding a word to rhyme with higher. Extensive 
 knowledge of words may almost extinguish poetic 
 
INTUITION. 225 
 
 genius; for, instead of concentrating attention upon 
 the limited field of vision so as to see clearly, there is 
 a tendency to be satisfied with the repetition of sonorous 
 words apparently referring to the subject. The genuine 
 poet must observe for himself. 
 
 The poetic genius, to be successful, must endeavour 
 to see the Circle ; and this is seen by the exercise of 
 the Yoga. It is difficult to avoid an aimless flitting to 
 and fro in pursuit of phantoms of the fancy generated 
 in the recesses of the memory by words never clearly 
 understood. Coleridge, when writing " Kubla Khan," 
 had in his mind a bright picture of a beautiful mansion 
 surrounded by a garden, in which the scenery included 
 a magnificent combination of mountain, and wood, and 
 waterfall, and the description is said to be an example 
 of word-painting. 
 
 " In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, 
 A stately pleasure-dome decree, 
 Where Alph, the sacred river, ran 
 Through caverns measureless to man, 
 Down to a sunless sea. 
 
 " Five miles meandering with a mazy motion 
 Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, 
 Then reached the caverns measureless to man 
 And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean ; 
 And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far 
 Ancestral voices prophesying war ! " 
 
 Is " Kubla Khan " a work of poetic genius, or a lucid 
 description of scenery with a beginning and ending 
 of melodious bombast ? The poem seems truly 
 
 O.M. Q 
 
226 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 illuminated by a vision of the life of man springing out 
 of the unseen, amid threatenings of destruction by causes 
 apparently uncontrollable, and escaping from early 
 dangers only to wander as in a dream over the 
 precipice beneath which is the awful mystery of the 
 darkness of death. The inspired poet always sees a 
 spiritual truth revealed by a physical symbol. 
 
 One of the best examples of persistent concentration 
 of attention by genius until the Circle was seen bright 
 and clear is provided by Kipling in his address " To the 
 True Romance." The multitude of formal causes, or 
 perfect ideals, pass before the vision of the poet, crowd- 
 ing upon one another so as scarcely to leave time for 
 definition ; and yet none of them would have been 
 visible if there had not at some time been recognition 
 of the Archetypal Man as the Light, and the Truth, 
 and the Way. 
 
 " As Thou didst teach all lovers speech, 
 And Life her mystery, 
 So shalt Thou rule by every school 
 Till love and longing die : 
 Who wast ere yet the lights were set, 
 A Whisper in the Void, 
 Who shalt be sung through planets young 
 When this is clean destroyed." 
 
 Is the man of genius always a superior and a suc- 
 cessful man ? Is he not frequently weak in body, 
 deficient in courage, passionate in disposition, fitful, 
 thriftless, unreliable ? Is he not a failure ? 
 
 It has been asserted that genius is really the result 
 and the evidence of degeneration ; so that, instead of 
 longing for the production of men of genius, the nation 
 
INTUITION. 227 
 
 ought to adopt the means most likely to prevent the 
 degeneration which manifests itself as genius. Those 
 who have attempted to prove that genius is evidence of 
 degeneration have shown themselves the subjects of 
 serious defect of intellect, for they have written of the 
 relation of genius to success without defining what they 
 mean by genius or what constitutes success ; and thus 
 they are like natives of Africa setting out on a walking 
 tour without having decided what is to be their destina- 
 tion, but intending to walk either to New York or 
 Melbourne. As an inevitable result, they wander 
 backwards and forwards, puzzling all they meet by 
 inaccurate descriptions of woods in which they have 
 lost themselves, and by inquiries for the shortest road 
 to places of which they cannot tell the names. We 
 must know what a thing was made for before we can 
 judge whether it is of value or not. Water must seem 
 one of the failures of the Creator to a man who tries to 
 light a fire with it. Why is the man of genius created ? 
 
 Human animals have a tendency to degradation and 
 self-destruction. The inspired man reveals to them an 
 ideal which occupies their attention and serves them for 
 a time ; but as soon as they become familiar with it 
 they employ it for evil, as the Apes in the Witches' 
 Kitchen placed the Crown on the head of Mephistopheles 
 and broke it by divorcing the spiritual from the material. 
 When the revealed ideal is trampled upon, the outburst 
 of the hell-fire of corruption threatens to envelop the 
 genius as well as the men who regard themselves as 
 merely apes. 
 
 There is need of a continual succession of inspired 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 men to reveal ideals that seem to have been destroyed 
 by those who would consume humanity in the hell-fire 
 of ape-like uncertainty and wantonness. By keeping in 
 mind the use of the man of genius we may learn why 
 he often appears an unsuccessful man or a degenerate 
 man ; and by defining what constitutes success we may 
 learn whether he has failed. 
 
 Why is a man of genius not always a model man 
 physically and mentally ? This is a question that was 
 puzzling Paul when he said that " not many wise men 
 after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are 
 called." God seemed to prefer the weak and the 
 imperfect ; but it is absurd to suppose that any architect 
 would prefer to see degraded specimens of his work. 
 The great warfare that is waged upon the stage of life 
 has for its object the regaining of perfection. Why, 
 then, is the messenger of God ever a weakly man ? 
 
 As a matter of fact, the greatest men of genius have 
 been remarkable for general superiority. Moses may 
 be regarded as the most distinguished intellectual genius 
 of any age, and it would be impossible to point to any 
 modern man capable of accomplishing such a life-work. 
 David is admitted to have been the greatest emotional 
 genius the poet whose songs will be sung by the best 
 men while the world endures ; and any man who 
 should pretend to be superior to him, physically or 
 mentally, would need to exhibit marvellous courage, 
 strength, and ability. The genius must have the defects 
 of his qualities; and the common man can no more 
 comprehend the feelings of David than the ostrich can 
 comprehend the sensations of the eagle. 
 
INTUITION. 22g 
 
 It is often necessary to place the genius under peculiar 
 conditions in order to enable him to do his work ; and 
 the restrictions imposed upon him may cause him to 
 appear unsuccessful and useless. Moses had strength 
 and courage, and would have preferred to deliver the 
 Hebrews by a bloody revolution ; but he had to be 
 taught that warriors and politicians can do nothing for 
 the elevation of a people who are morally corrupt. 
 Many years of apparent failure were needed to cure him 
 of his belief in force as a remedy. 
 
 The devil always uses his utmost ability to spoil the 
 efforts of the genius, whose extreme sympathy and 
 sensitiveness make him easily tempted by attractive 
 distracting visions. Man is given the object of his 
 desire when he really knows what his chief desire is, 
 and what will satisfy him. Suppose a man of true 
 spirit, and yet unstable as water, desiring to do a great 
 work in harmony with the designs of God, how can God 
 make him able to do the work ? Place the unstable 
 water in a hydraulic press and it may be made to rend 
 mountains. Bunyan had to be kept in prison to enable 
 him to accomplish what he most desired to perform ; 
 and Milton had to be deprived of sight to prevent 
 the waste of his energies in political bickerings. The 
 prophet must forget himself in his work, and must 
 listen so intently for instruction that he says in his 
 heart : 
 
 " Oh to be nothing, nothing ! 
 Only as led by His hand ; 
 A messenger at His gateway 
 Only waiting for His command. 
 
23O THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 11 Only an instrument ready 
 
 His praises to sound at His will ; 
 
 Willing, should He not require me, 
 
 In silence to wait on him still." 
 
 The ideal of the self-sacrificing spirit of genius was 
 manifested by Christ at the institution of the Holy 
 Communion. Knowing that those He wished to save 
 were about to deliver Him up to be mocked and 
 scourged, and crucified ; but knowing also that His 
 work could not be accomplished except by sub- 
 mitting to the torture and the cruel death, He joined 
 with His disciples in singing the hymns of praise by 
 which the Jews were accustomed to express their 
 gratitude to God for enabling them to escape from 
 bondage and to triumph over all enemies. The con- 
 cluding lines had an awful depth of meaning for the 
 Saviour: "God is the Lord, who hath shewed us 
 Light. Bind the Sacrifice with cords, yea, even 
 unto the horns of the altar. Thou art my God, 
 and I will thank Thee ; Thou art My God, and 
 I will praise Thee. O give thanks unto the Lord, 
 for He is gracious; and His mercy endureth for 
 ever." Genius can be triumphant through suffering 
 and death. 
 
 There must be something superior in the physical 
 structure of the man of genius, however weak apparently. 
 It is unscientific to suppose that the superior mental 
 powers of Shakespeare were not accompanied by 
 corresponding superiority in the form and com- 
 position of his brain-cells ; and it was said of Milton 
 that " his harmonical and ingenuous soul dwelt in a 
 
INTUITION. 231 
 
 beautiful and well-proportioned body." It may be 
 objected that Johnson had a beautiful soul in an ugly, 
 disproportioned body; but he may have inherited 
 superior brain-cells and a superior body, and may 
 simply have suffered from the results of injury or disease. 
 For accurate spiritual vision there must have been some 
 part of youth spent under normal conditions ; and, per- 
 haps, that is why Johnson was not a revealer or prophet, 
 though he was a great moral force owing to his fidelity 
 to a Perfect Model. Perhaps we ought to regard John- 
 son as a truly great genius enslaved from infancy by 
 artificial conditions of existence, so that healthy 
 development was impossible. The elasticity of his soul 
 was destroyed by continual engorgement with words, 
 as his liver became diseased by disregard of the laws of 
 nutrition. 
 
 Victor Hugo was a genius who was not taught under 
 normal conditions of life. The result was exaggeration 
 and confusion of imagery. He was liable to mistake 
 the croaking of frogs for thunder. Thomas Carlyle was 
 a genius who was unable to digest either his material 
 or his mental food with a spirit of thankfulness, 
 and so he was liable to see the finest diamonds as 
 if blurred and discoloured by bile. A man must 
 feel quite sure that the world is the work of a 
 Benevolent Designer, and must know his own 
 relation to Perfect Justice, before he can be a true 
 prophet. 
 
 How does it happen that a feeble infant like Victor 
 Hugo ever becomes even an imperfect moral genius ? 
 The explanation probably is that the unbounded love 
 
232 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 of his mother revealed God as Jehovah to him ; and 
 that will be found to be the origin of moral genius in 
 most cases. He was not a reliable moral genius, 
 because his father failed to reveal God to him as 
 Archetypal Intellect, perfect in Justice and Truth. 
 Sometimes it may be another woman than the mother 
 who reveals Jehovah so as to make a man a genius ; 
 but the love of a woman is always involved in the open- 
 ing of a man's mind to the voice of Jehovah. The 
 child of the upright father, but with a selfish mother, 
 rather becomes a rigid moralist, without any message to 
 mankind that can give comfort to the sorrowing or light 
 to those in darkness. 
 
 How is it that the child of apparently ignorant 
 parents living in obscurity so often astonishes the world 
 by the display of brilliant genius ? The Darwinian 
 tries to explain the fact by a theory of cumulative 
 heredity, without knowing whether any special inherent 
 quality existed to accumulate, and without knowing any 
 cause for its accumulation or for its manifestation. 
 The degenerate monomaniac of evolution sees in the 
 genius an example of retrogressive atavism, and proves 
 to his own satisfaction that all superiority of mind is 
 due to the outcrop of some special characteristic of a 
 lower condition of existence ; and he persuades himself 
 that special mental qualities have been developed by 
 the exercise of special physical functions, though such 
 special physical functions could never have been exer- 
 cised owing to the absence of the necessary mental 
 stimulus. The theosophist easily explains the pos- 
 session of genius by the theory of re-incarnation, 
 
INTUITION. 233 
 
 according to which the ancient Plato, having gone 
 through new experiences, may reappear as a modern 
 Shakespeare ; but this theory is liable to cause dissen- 
 sions among distinguished men, since several thousand 
 may claim the spirit of the original at the same time, 
 and there is no possible way of deciding into which of 
 the present inhabitants of the earth the spirit has 
 entered, or, indeed, whether it has not lost itself in 
 space. 
 
 History affords interesting evidence of the relation 
 of heredity to genius. The ancient Hebrews, whom 
 materialists confound with Jews, had the influence of 
 heredity, as well as that of education, to give them the 
 spiritual strength which uplifted human nature in 
 periods of degradation by producing the genius to 
 reveal the Archetypal Form. In order to produce a 
 genius, one parent, at least, must have spiritual visions, 
 or must be a Hebrew. Probably it is necessary that 
 both parents should have spiritual vision, and thus 
 be in perfect harmony of spirit, to produce a 
 prophet. 
 
 Owing to the pure spiritual aspiration of one or both 
 parents, the genius has some elements of his soul, and, 
 consequently, some elements of his physical organism, 
 tuned in harmony with some of the thoughts of God ; 
 yet the extent to which the heavenly impulses can be 
 recognised depends on education and environment, and 
 on voluntary effort to commune with God. If Handel 
 had been reared by savages, he would have had superior 
 perception of musical sounds, and would have had 
 delight in communing with Nature, but he would never 
 
234 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 have listened to the Hallelujah Chorus. There were 
 needed the inherited spiritual and physical capacity, 
 the early cultivation of the special powers, the intel- 
 lectual and emotional food provided by the Christian 
 teacher, and the whole-hearted devotion to the praise 
 of God with the best powers possessed. Heaven 
 seemed open to him. The superiority of a genius 
 is in proportion to the height he can rise above the 
 earth. 
 
 When surprise is expressed at the production of a 
 genius by parents who are ignorant, we must ask, What 
 is ignorance? Many of the most ignorant men are 
 those who are supposed to be the best educated. The 
 scholar who has polished manners and a ready com- 
 mand of several languages may not have sufficient 
 knowledge of Nature to enable him to maintain himself, 
 so that he is a parasite on the man he despises as 
 ignorant. The man who knows Nature, and can com- 
 mune with God, is the man of real knowledge, and is 
 the potential father of a genius. Hence it is that the 
 genius is often the child of an old man, or of parents 
 who have already a number of children ; experience and 
 trial having opened their eyes to the eternity in which 
 time is as nothing. Abraham and his wife had to be 
 very old before they could be the founders of a whole 
 race of Hebrews. When the experience that has opened 
 the eyes has been such as to overstrain or impair the 
 physical strength, the resulting weakness must be trans- 
 mitted to the children, and then genius will be associated 
 with delicacy of constitution. 
 
 Heredity alone never produces moral genius, since 
 
INTUITION. 235 
 
 there must also be education ; and the example set by 
 parents or teachers is the most important element in 
 education. The moral genius is specially favoured by 
 heredity, and yet he cannot become a genius except by 
 receiving illumination, and by utilising it. Tennyson 
 had to spend many years in gaining experience, and in 
 exercising his gifts, before his message to the world had 
 special value. 
 
 In modern times it has become extremely difficult for 
 a strong and clever man to develop any latent genius, 
 and the restoration of Eden has been lamentably 
 retarded by the wholesale spiritual destruction of the 
 children who have potential genius. They are caged 
 up by artificial surroundings, or directed to the way of 
 death. Owing to the influence of Christian homes and 
 Christian women there are few children in a country 
 like England who have not some genius ; and yet the 
 vast majority live and die almost as animals. Success 
 is supposed to mean the accumulation of wealth, or the 
 possession of power, or the attainment of fame ; and 
 the cleverest children are trained to fight, and rob, and 
 cheat, and steal, or to devote their attention to what- 
 ever study is most likely to lead to lucrative employ- 
 ment. The possession of wisdom for its own sake 
 seems folly to those who are fiercely struggling for gold, 
 and the enjoyment to be found in calm meditation 
 seems the horror of death to those who know nothing 
 to live for but the gratification of the senses. The man 
 who would develop his genius must turn away from the 
 dazzling scenes of intoxicating delight provided by 
 Mammon, and from the enchanting music which is the 
 
236 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 funeral march of the soul ; and, to find wisdom, he 
 must pray to the Perfect : 
 
 " Oh, let me hear Thee speaking, 
 
 In accents clear and still, 
 Above the storms of passion, 
 
 The murmurs of self-will ; 
 Oh, speak to reassure me, 
 
 To hasten or control ; 
 Oh, speak, and make me listen, 
 
 Thou Guardian of my soul ! " 
 
237 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 intuition (continued). 
 
 The multiplication of books is necessary for the 
 stimulation of thought and the diffusion of knowledge ; 
 and yet it is one of the great hindrances of genius. 
 The evil wrought at Babel is not yet thoroughly under- 
 stood and remedied. Talented children are compelled 
 to learn the words employed by different nations without 
 regard to the value of the thoughts revealed, until 
 knowledge of words is mistaken for knowledge of 
 things, and those who have never seen a lake fancy 
 they understand all about the ocean. Thousands of 
 men of great ability and wonderful industry have been 
 led to waste their lives in accumulating words in 
 obedience to the advice of Mephistopheles, never 
 suspecting that spiritual health is made impossible by 
 their stupidity and folly. They attach themselves to a 
 particular teacher or school, repeat whatever words 
 they are taught, take refuge in empty words when 
 poverty of thought is made manifest, fight in the defence 
 of the empty words, and by their accumulations of 
 words blind themselves to the meaning of the statement 
 made by Mephistopheles, with a mocking sneer, that 
 the only safe gate to the temple of sure knowledge is 
 through the Word. 
 
238 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 " The best thing that the case affords 
 Is stick to some one doctor's words : 
 Maintain his doctrine out and out, 
 Admit no qualifying doubt ; 
 But stick to words at any rate, 
 Their magic bids the temple gate 
 Of Certainty fly safely ope 
 Words, words alone are your best hope," 
 
 Student. 
 " But in each word must be a thought " 
 
 Mephistopheles. 
 
 " There is, or we may so assume 
 Not always found, or always sought, 
 While words mere words, supply its room. 
 Words answer well, when men enlist 'em, 
 In building up a favourite system ; 
 With words men dogmatise, deceive ; 
 With words dispute, on words believe ; 
 And be the meaning much or little, 
 The Word can lose nor jot nor tittle." 
 
 Genius has been described as infinite capacity for 
 taking pains ; but one might as well say that astronomy 
 is the continual counting of the stars. The most pains- 
 taking man may be an utterly stupid blunderer, who 
 can never discover any pattern in the material which 
 he laboriously examines. It is the ideal curves seen by 
 the spirit of the astronomer that form the basis of his 
 science; and these curves are only seen as the result of 
 mental endowment which no man can confer upon 
 another. Many of those who have done great service 
 
INTUITION. 239 
 
 as painstaking workers, and who have seemed to the 
 ignorant to be men of genius, have been incapable of 
 knowing what constitutes genius ; and the genius has 
 often seemed an indolent dreamer, unable and unwilling 
 to do useful work, or to take any pains to provide for 
 himself. The men who quarry, and hew the stone, 
 and erect the building, may be unable to read, while 
 the architect may be physically a cripple. Valuable 
 work in the construction of a machine may be done by 
 men who never have had any vision of the design of the 
 machine, but only think of the particular parts which 
 they form and polish without knowing how the whole 
 can be connected ; but what is to them apparently 
 trivial may be to the genius the centre of a system, 
 since he sees all as related to the form in his mind. 
 Genius enables a man to do something excellently 
 without pains, which a common man could not do by a 
 lifetime of pains. 
 
 Formerly the genius was liable to be persecuted and 
 even murdered by those who could not discover the 
 secret of his superiority ; now many of those who 
 cannot see endeavour by painstaking accumulation of 
 facts to find out what is meant by vision. Unfortu- 
 nately for much that is at present called science, theories 
 are often formed without knowledge, and facts are 
 viewed only in the light of the baseless theory, so that 
 men waste their lives pursuing the wrong path. 
 
 Some who are unconscious of their blindness say that 
 genius is a result and a symptom of degeneration ; and 
 this sounds like something worthy of study until we 
 discover that the writers have no definite notion of the 
 
24O THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 meaning of genius or of the meaning of degeneration. 
 As the easiest method of escaping definition, it is 
 assumed that every man who ever distinguished himself 
 as a soldier, or a politician, or a scholar, or in almost 
 any way whatever, was a genius. This is admitted to 
 be a confounding of genius with talent ; and confusion 
 is inevitable in a fog. Great capacity for taking pains 
 is displayed in the accumulating of gossip concerning 
 famous men, and much evidence is produced to prove 
 that there never was a great man who could not be 
 discredited either in regard to his character, or his 
 knowledge, or his wisdom, or his personal appearance, 
 or his ancestors. The greatest men have been in some 
 way imperfect. 
 
 It seems rather absurd to spend much labour to prove 
 what is taught as one of the axioms of Christianity 
 which nobody possessed of common sense can doubt. 
 It is an ancient saying that " all have sinned, and come 
 short of the glory of God" ; but those who have had 
 the advantage of early training in the wisdom of the 
 Hebrews have often no idea of the darkness amid which 
 neighbours less favoured have to struggle. Tolstoi 
 fancied he had made some of the most marvellous of 
 modern discoveries when he learned some truths 
 regarding Christianity which were familiar to every 
 Christian peasant in England. 
 
 Lombroso, who may be taken as the representative 
 of a class of writers, says that genius is " a special 
 morbid condition," and that genius and insanity are 
 related effects of degeneration. He asserts that " The 
 signs of degeneration are found more frequently in men 
 
INTUITION. 241 
 
 of genius than even in the insane." These statements 
 are really the sentiments of a serious writer and teacher 
 who feels something of the great importance his theory 
 would possess if it were true. In his preface he says, 
 " How can one suppress a feeling of horror at the 
 thought of associating with idiots and criminals those 
 individuals who represent the highest manifestations of 
 the human spirit ? " Thus men of genius are acknow- 
 ledged to represent the highest manifestations of the 
 human spirit ; and if they are degenerate, what must 
 the common specimens of humanity be ? 
 
 Genius is said to be an exaggerated development of 
 one faculty at the expense of others, so that the man 
 of genius is a monster ; but here we have evidence of 
 inability to comprehend the meaning of genius. Great 
 intellectual power does not confer genius, any more 
 than great muscular power confers skill, or strength of 
 voice musical ability. The genius must have intellect 
 and talents ; but no development of intellect and talents 
 can produce genius. Peculiar ability is not necessarily 
 genius. 
 
 The evidence given to prove the degeneracy of great 
 men is ridiculous. One told a lie ; another had a small 
 head ; another gave way to fits of temper ; another was 
 little of stature ; another had a large brain ; another 
 had a massive body. Darwin had the misfortune to 
 have a snub nose and large ears, and by these he is 
 proved degenerate ; but some eminent Jews are among the 
 degenerate because they had large noses. Darwin is 
 also proved degenerate by his refusal to believe in 
 hypnotism, while another distinguished man is said to 
 
 O.M. R 
 
242 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 have been a degenerate because he refused to believe in 
 Darwin's theory of evolution. Some scrap of gossip or 
 scandal is adduced to prove the degeneracy of Plato, 
 and Attila, and John Hunter, and Julius Caesar, and 
 St. Paul, and Napoleon Bonaparte, and all the confused 
 crowd of soldiers, poets, criminals, painters, scholars, 
 and lunatics, who are jumbled together as men of 
 genius. If any famous or notorious man had a father 
 who told a lie, or a mother who ever lost her temper, 
 or a sister who had an hysterical attack, or an uncle 
 who got drunk, he must take his stand among the 
 degenerate. Every famous man is degenerate but 
 every famous man is not a genius. 
 
 One of the special evidences of degeneracy which the 
 clever evolutionist sees in the man of genius is a ten- 
 dency to employ symbols. This is said to be a charac- 
 teristic of monomania such as men of genius exhibit. 
 
 Symbolism is said to be the result of atavism ; and so 
 it is, though not in the evolutionary sense. The funda- 
 mental difference between a brute and a man is the 
 employment of symbols ; and a man is higher in the 
 scale of intelligence in proportion to the number and 
 complexity of the symbols which he can recognise. 
 Until a man can recognise the compass and square as 
 moral symbols he is only a human animal, or a superior 
 kind of brute. Atavistic retrogression, or a return to 
 the condition of our forefathers, means elevation instead 
 of degradation. Without the symbolism of Adam the 
 modern man would be a savage without a language; 
 or, more probably, the human race would long ago have 
 become extinct. 
 
INTUITION. 243 
 
 The mental, affect ion which causes anyone to regard 
 every eminent man as insane or degenerate may be 
 thought to be identical with the Insanity of Adoles- 
 cence; but it is not so. Self-confidence is necessarily 
 highly developed in young male animals at puberty, 
 and is kept within normal bounds by the conflicts which 
 take place under natural conditions. When a foolish 
 mother shields her son from healthy competition with 
 other youths, his self-esteem may develop abnormally, 
 until he becomes insane by brooding over his wonderful 
 ability. One meets young men in lunatic asylums who 
 have lost mental balance by being reared under 
 artificial conditions which saved them from receiving 
 salutary punishment from boys in the street. They 
 suffer from the Insanity of Adolescence, in which self- 
 esteem is sufficient to extinguish envy. The lunatic is 
 so satisfied that he is superior to everyone that he would 
 not take the trouble to study their failings. Selfishness 
 has become all-engrossing. 
 
 What, then, is the form of mental disease which is 
 characterised by a monomania for proving every 
 superior man degenerate ? Some may say that the 
 sufferer is a mattoid, or that he is afflicted with para- 
 noiac psychosis ; but the employment of such indefinite 
 pretentious terms is to be avoided. The peculiar 
 defect which leads to the confounding of genius with 
 insanity is inability to idealise ; and it is shown by the 
 satisfaction with which ponderous complex words are 
 employed though they do not correspond to any clear 
 ideas. The disease is congenital spiritual cataract ; and 
 the sufferer resembles a man who sees a dark mass in 
 
 R 2 
 
244 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 the distance, which may be an elephant, or a tree, or a 
 cloud, and who yet is proudly content with his know- 
 ledge of it when he proclaims that it is an objective 
 phenomenon capable of producing retinal impressions. 
 What he cannot grasp he cannot value. This is 
 merely a common defect of humanity. A man is not a 
 lunatic because he is illogical, or obtuse, or deficient in 
 humour, or spiritually blind. A moderate degree of 
 degeneracy must not be styled insanity. The animal 
 man may be healthy as a human animal. 
 
 Lombroso remarks that unconsciousness of contra- 
 diction is a characteristic of lunacy ; and he informs us 
 that men of genius, who are to be classed with idiots 
 and criminals as degenerate specimens of humanity, are 
 nevertheless the highest manifestations of the human 
 spirit to whom we owe religion and progress. He admits 
 in his conclusion that men of genius " hasten by whole 
 centuries the unfolding of truth " ; and, lest this should 
 lead us to believe that genius is something desirable, he 
 adds : " The frequency of genius among lunatics and 
 of madmen among men of genius explains the fact that 
 the destiny of nations has often been in the hands of the 
 insane ; and shows how the latter have been able to 
 contribute so much to the progress of mankind." 
 Unreasoning certainty is given as a characteristic of 
 monomaniacs, while some men of genius are said to 
 be characterised by calculating sagacity. The evolu- 
 tionist in his efforts to besmirch the genius he cannot 
 understand exhibits much unreasoning certainty without 
 any calculating sagacity, and is unconscious of self- 
 contradiction, 
 
INTUITION. 245 
 
 Neglect to think clearly and accurately is a cause of 
 obtuseness in the modern student. He is crammed 
 with unwieldly composite words which he cannot 
 digest ; and though the result may be increase of 
 mental bulk by engorgement, there is torpor of the 
 higher faculties. Lombroso says, at the beginning of 
 his book, that the physiologist of the present day is 
 not afraid to reduce thought to a molecular move- 
 ment. Such a physiologist would be incapable of 
 profound thought. 
 
 The genius sees the ideal ; but there can be no ideal 
 to the believer in the evolution of man from animals. 
 The greatest men are said by the evolutionist to be 
 degenerate, or to have fallen from a higher state. Who 
 is the standard man ? What is the standard state ? 
 Who had the perfect body and the perfect mind with 
 which degenerates are compared ? There can be no 
 such thing as degeneracy to the genuine evolutionist. 
 A snub nose, or a large nose, or large ears, or small 
 ears, may be evidence of progress in evolution in 
 response to change of environment. 
 
 The norm is the square which cannot evolve. The 
 evolutionist talks of normal and abnormal ; but the 
 normal man is the man in whom we cannot imagine 
 improvement or evolution. Without the ideas expressed 
 by normal and abnormal, education could never have 
 had a beginning. All discussion of degeneration pre- 
 supposes the creation of Adam the Perfect Man and 
 the Fall from perfection. The evolutionist is compelled 
 to appeal to the Archetypal Man as the standard of 
 comparison ; and he is incapable of knowing anything 
 
246 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 of perfect archetypes except what has been taught to 
 him by men of genius. 
 
 To the utter savage an educated man is incomprehen- 
 sible, and even seems insane, when his conduct is 
 markedly influenced by a number of lines of various 
 shapes which he sees on a piece of paper. To the 
 animal man the genius is similarly incomprehensible or 
 insane. The mere animal man who has been taught by 
 the inspired man to use words may fancy that he has 
 acquired knowledge for himself; and, when his conceit 
 and envy have been fed by the pasturage in which he 
 has been placed, he may describe belief in the inspira- 
 tion he cannot understand, and the perfect archetypes 
 he cannot see, as a symptom of insanity. Caliban will 
 always have a tendency to curse the man who taught 
 him. 
 
 There are several reasons why the confounding of 
 genius with insanity is almost inevitable. In the first 
 place, neither of the terms is defined. The writers have 
 no clear notion of what they mean by genius, or of what 
 they mean by insanity. In the next place, the subject 
 is beyond the comprehension of the writers. Both 
 genius and insanity involve action in the spiritual 
 sphere, and cannot possibly be understood by those 
 who never rise above the mere mental plane. Genius 
 is the operation of the spirit in its normal field ; insanity 
 proper is the wandering of the spirit. Peaks of the 
 mountains that are separated by an impassable gulf may 
 appear continuous to those who only see a hazy outline 
 of them from the plain. 
 
 Men of genius are often absent-minded and forgetful, 
 
INTUITION. 247 
 
 and therefore have been supposed to be deficient in 
 some important faculty of mind. Every thinker must 
 appear absent-minded in proportion to the concentra- 
 tion of his attention upon one subject; and every man 
 is forgetful of that in which he is taking least interest. 
 Power of concentrating the mind upon one subject is 
 evidence of the highest human development ; and the 
 thinker does not glance about him irrationally like a 
 monkey to notice every irrelevant object. The clever 
 man of business must be absent-minded when sur- 
 rounded by idle gossips ; and the student who is most 
 ready with the names of actors and actresses is very 
 likely to stare in blank dismay at the examiner who 
 requires him to recollect some important principles he 
 has been taught. The true poet must appear absent- 
 minded when his thoughts are concentrated upon 
 abstract ideas ; and he may even be said to be for the 
 moment out of his mind, since his spirit is endeavouring 
 to soar beyond the limits of the common mind. The 
 state of rapture has been called a sacred delirium ; and 
 a stupid man, with no idea of the meaning of this 
 statement, might fancy that he who used the expression 
 regarded a poet as a lunatic. Democritus knew how a 
 poet must be out of his mind ; and Plato knew what he 
 meant by sacred delirium ; and Aristotle knew that the 
 strain of lofty thought causes congestion of the brain. 
 In the so-called sacred delirium of the genius the spirit 
 is at home in the highest regions of ideation, 
 while in the delirium of insanity the spirit has lost 
 itself. The fool thinks the mind deranged when he is 
 unable to see the idea that guides the traveller. 
 
248 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 The common human animal often fancies himself a 
 genius, and then he attempts to imitate the poet, or the 
 painter, or the prophet, or the genius of some kind. 
 He may devote himself to his task with great energy 
 and perseverance, and may become quite as much 
 absorbed in his delusive work as the genius is in 
 following his ideals ; but the human animal fails 
 because he has not true vision, and has never known 
 the Creator. Genius is recognised only by genius ; 
 and the cleverest critical human animals are quite at a 
 loss to decide whether to applaud or ridicule until they 
 see whether recognised authorities receive the new 
 aspirant as a brother. Hence the verdict of the 
 crowd who are always seeking some new thing is often 
 quite erroneous. 
 
 " Some sparkling showy thing got up in haste, 
 Brilliant and light, will catch the passing taste. 
 The truly great, the genuine, the sublime, 
 Wins its slow way in silence ; and the bard, 
 Unnoticed long, receives from after-time 
 The imperishable wreath, his best, his sole reward." 
 
 It has been said that the genius and the lunatic alone 
 have originality ; but this statement is due to inability 
 to understand the meaning of genius, or lunacy, or 
 originality. The man who knows says truly that God 
 and the poet are the only Creators. If one assumes 
 that every genius is a lunatic, it follows that some 
 lunatics have originality; and if occasional fits of 
 passion or failures of memory are regarded as evidence 
 of lunacy, it becomes easy to prove that every man is 
 a lunatic. Writers on insanity cannot agree upon any 
 
INTUITION. 249 
 
 definition that would clearly distinguish the sane from 
 the insane ; and it is commonly said that no man is 
 perfectly sane or perfectly healthy. The fundamental 
 mistake that is made is in regarding insanity as merely 
 a morbid state of the mind, whereas it is a morbid state 
 of the spirit. There is no element of the mind which 
 may not appear as healthy in a lunatic as in his 
 physician. The memory of a lunatic may be in some 
 respects better than that of a sane man ; he may be 
 usually calm and self-controlled; he may have good 
 reasoning power upon some subjects, and so be able 
 to discomfit sane men in argument. What, then, is 
 the essential feature of insanity ? The spirit fails to 
 distinguish the true way, and mistakes the unreal for 
 the real. 
 
 The only man who is really sane is the spiritual genius, 
 or the man who accepts instruction from him, for he 
 alone recognises truth with absolute certainty ; and this 
 is why the spiritual genius is able to preserve his sanity 
 under trials which destroy the intelligence of those who 
 have not genius. Tennyson had spiritual genius, and 
 therefore we find him, at the end of a long life, facing 
 death with perfect consciousness and composure. So 
 it was with Goethe. Those who despise the teaching 
 of a true prophet become lunatic when much tried by 
 adversity, and are very liable to lose control of their 
 faculties when suffering from disease, or injury, or 
 old age. 
 
 Distinction must be carefully made between true and 
 spurious genius ; and insanity must not be confounded 
 with idiocy, imbecility, or delirium. Precocity does 
 
250 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 not necessarily imply moral genius, nor does exaggera- 
 tion of any of the mental faculties. Sometimes the 
 passionate disposition and lack of self-control, often 
 due to parental neglect of discipline, which prompt a 
 man to disobey the laws and to outrage the feelings 
 of others, are looked upon as evidence of genius ; and 
 the hysterical fool is confounded with the enthusiastic 
 sage. The genius who opposes the laws or customs of 
 society does so because he can see some true ideal that 
 is violated, and he opposes injustice in order that law 
 may be established upon a more stable basis. The 
 wanton opponent of the regulations of society is 
 incapable of seeing any ideal, and would only produce 
 anarchy. 
 
 A spiritual genius may become insane, since integrity 
 of mind depends upon integrity of brain, and serious 
 injury of the nervous system will impair the healthiest 
 intelligence. No intellect can remain clear when a 
 poisonous dose of opium is taken. Yet the genius can 
 resist causes of insanity to which the mind of mere 
 human animals would succumb. 
 
 The man of genius and the lunatic seem to resemble 
 each other in the tendency to gaze abstractedly at some- 
 thing where there is nothing material to be seen, or to 
 listen for sounds which are not audible to the physical ear. 
 Both may then be employing the spirit as superior to 
 mere mental faculties ; but the spirit of the genius is at 
 home upon known roads, and seeing the unchangeable 
 archetypal ideas which are the eternal foundations of 
 knowledge, while the spirit of the lunatic has lost itself 
 in pursuit of a phantom. A savage would be much 
 
INTUITION. 251 
 
 perplexed by the delight with which a composer will 
 listen to music which has no existence as vibrations of 
 air until he creates the visible out of the invisible, or 
 something out of nothing ; and there may seem to be 
 no difference between such listening and that of the 
 maniac who fancies he hears the voices of invisible 
 enemies. What distinction can there be ? The one is 
 guided by an ideal and the other is not. When two 
 things are equally incomprehensible it is obvious that 
 no explanation of their difference can be understood, 
 and therefore the mere human animal must regard the 
 man of genius and the lunatic as subject to similiar 
 hallucinations and delusions. An animal man with 
 reverence for superiors may be taught much, but the fool 
 thinks because he does not know nobody else knows. 
 
 The human animal always looks at things within his 
 dungeon or on its walls ; the lunatic is deceived by 
 morbid fancies of what is hidden in secret corners or 
 lies outside ; while the genius, or the man with spiritual 
 vision, is able to convert the walls into transparent 
 material so that he may see and enjoy the beautiful 
 country beyond. Thus a lunatic may be superior to 
 his keeper, as a drunken man is still of superior nature 
 to the dog that protects him. Both the genius and the 
 lunatic concentrate attention upon ideas ; but the gaze 
 of the one is fixed upon true ideas, while that of the 
 other is deceived by illusions. The lunatic is mocked 
 by the servants that ought to obey him ; and that is 
 the natural result of tyranny over them or of weakly 
 subjection to them. What is false is represented to 
 him as true, and therefore we may say that a lunatic is 
 
252 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 essentially a man under demoniacal influence. The 
 rapt gaze of the genius or the prophet is that of a spirit 
 capable of seeing the planets revolving harmoniously in 
 obedience to immutable laws, or the moral relations of 
 mankind controlled by perfect ideals ; the rapt gaze of 
 the lunatic may signify an effort to conceive a triangle 
 with only two sides, or a moral standard in process of 
 evolution. 
 
 The man of genius is consistent because he has an 
 unchangeable ideal around which his thoughts centre, 
 however erratic his mental fancies may be when he turns 
 aside from his ideal. Hence the exclamation of the 
 Psalmist : " My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is 
 fixed ; I will sing and give praise." The insane man 
 is essentially unstable and erratic, though he may 
 be said to have a "fixed idea"; for his fixed idea is 
 like a comet without an orbit, and will only lead 
 him to destruction. The ideas of a lunatic are liable 
 to sudden anarchy, so that when apparently most 
 reasonable he will be found, in some respects, beyond 
 the reach of reason ; at one time he will rush along 
 with great energy without any definite purpose, and 
 again he will sit in a state of morbid gloom without 
 any real cause of distress. He will work diligently 
 to polish a door handle a hundred times a day, repeat- 
 ing the same act with automatic monotony, and not 
 because he wishes to be useful. His thoughts may 
 be directed to his liver until he becomes convinced that 
 it is made of gold, or that it has been replaced by an 
 oyster shell. He indulges in fancied possession of wealth 
 and power without any sense of the responsibility which 
 
INTUITION. 253 
 
 the possession of wealth and power ought to inspire. 
 The man of genius always works towards a perfect 
 system ; the system a lunatic tries to form has links 
 lacking. 
 
 The essential characteristic of insanity is concentra- 
 tion of thought upon self, which depends upon the 
 rejection of Christianity. The lunatic may be able to 
 play billiards or chess, or to repeat with great volubility 
 the arguments of teachers of philosophy or science; 
 but he will not do anything useful if it interferes with 
 the contemplation of his own grievance, or the pursuit 
 of his own hobby. He will not work intelligently and 
 quietly merely to help other people. The one charac- 
 teristic common to all cases of insanity is inability to 
 forget self in working for the welfare of others. When 
 an intelligent educated man deliberately rejects Christi- 
 anity he is already in a state of incipient madness, 
 which is certain to develop if his life is prolonged under 
 trying conditions. Lunatic asylums are filled by men 
 and women who have no true Ideal. The true genius 
 gives up his life to work for mankind because he has 
 seen the Ideal ; and though he may be at one moment 
 soaring away towards the heavens beyond the reach of 
 common men, and the next struggling in the dust with 
 broken pinions ; though his delightful progress on a 
 placid ocean may be suddenly changed into a struggle 
 for life among foaming billows ; though, after having 
 triumphantly floated his flag upon a peak which has 
 defied the foot of man for ages, he may have to crawl, 
 with mangled limbs, among precipices which the 
 natives of the plain have always feared to visit, he 
 
254 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 obtains for ordinary mortals something they could never 
 have obtained for themselves. 
 
 A poet has a glimpse of some archetypal idea of 
 love, or hate, or jealousy, or some passion ; and it is 
 impossible to see anything of the perfect form of any 
 passion without having seen something of Perfect 
 Emotion. Each individual part in Nature is so inter- 
 woven with the whole that the form and purpose of a 
 part cannot be truly recognised except by a recognition 
 of the complete harmony of the complex machine. The 
 enthusiasm produced by the vision of the Perfect Mind 
 inspires a man with a sense of beauty and order, so 
 that even the expression of the thoughts is conveyed in 
 the rhythm and melodious flow of poetry, or in the 
 beautiful curves and colours of painting, or in the 
 harmonious sounds of music. 
 
 Wherever woman is given her natural position, there 
 is a tendency at some time in every pure youth and 
 maiden to see Love in its Archetypal Form ; and 
 therefore a tendency to express thought in poetry. In 
 a Christian country every man and woman with sound 
 mental endowment ought to be something of a true 
 poet ; but the land that is cursed by the Moslem can 
 hardly produce a poet, since the poet would have to 
 see woman in a light which would make it impossible 
 for him to remain a Moslem. 
 
 Although the genuine poet must have original vision 
 of some perfect ideals, the majority of those who in the 
 present day write what is called poetry have no such 
 visions. A man who has spent much time at school 
 with good teachers, or who has had leisure to read 
 
INTUITION. 255 
 
 many books, and who has had great practice in the 
 employment of words, may use the choicest words to 
 make rhymes with great facility though incapable of 
 understanding what constitutes poetry. Such a man 
 may even be made poet laureate. 
 
 Poets are often men who have great distaste for 
 steady continuous work, so that in fitfulness they may 
 seem to resemble lunatics, while their occasional 
 abandonment to passion may increase the resemblance; 
 but the poet works continuously according to definite 
 design until he has finished whatever trifle of work he 
 does; otherwise he is a sham poet. A single poetical 
 verse must have definite truth revealed in it, or must 
 serve to set an old truth in a new light. There is 
 consistency, or obedience to form ; and that form is a 
 perfect ideal. 
 
 The poet is affected by a cause of improvidence 
 which a mere animal man does not feel. He has seen 
 to the end of Time, and knows the folly of trying to 
 accumulate earthly possessions as enduring sources of 
 happiness. What is to others the proof of success is 
 to him the evidence of folly. The toil of the human 
 animal for gold suggests to the poet the reflection : 
 
 " If thou art rich thou'rt poor ; 
 For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows, 
 Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, 
 And death unloads thee." 
 
 Genius does not confer self-control or strength of 
 muscle, and the sedentary habits so often associated 
 with profound meditatiomtend to impair digestion and 
 
256 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 cause weakness of heart. The poet must have capacity 
 for profound emotion, and if this is combined with 
 weak muscles and deficient self-control there will very 
 likely be outbursts of ridiculous passion. It is hardly 
 possible for a man whose muscles are congenitally 
 flabby to be gifted with real genius, but it frequently 
 happens that a child endowed with genius and restless 
 energy is injured by accident or disease, which arrests 
 physical activity and compels reflection ; and thus the 
 innate powers of thought are developed and talents 
 improved until bodily weakness almost seems favourable 
 to genius. 
 
 The working genius having seen the Ideal, which 
 can never change, is characterised by steadfastness of 
 purpose in the endeavour to carry oat a definite, useful 
 plan, or to describe a certain accurate view of Nature. 
 He may be weak and easily tired, and may not have 
 energy enough to work steadily ; or he may be led 
 away by idols, and may spoil himself by trying to 
 include a number of objects which he has never seen 
 distinctly in the same picture with the things he has 
 clearly defined. However fragmentary his work, or 
 however much it may be overlaid by rubbish, he reveals 
 something recognised by mankind as infallible truth 
 which can never change or die. 
 
 The ideals in the universe are infinite, but the 
 smallest cannot be recognised without some glimpse 
 of the Grand Design. The little wheel seems unworthy 
 of notice till we know its relations to the complex 
 machine. All is meaningless if we know nothing of 
 the Designer, The Hebrew prophets saw the Mystic 
 
INTUITION. 257 
 
 Circle surrounding all. The teachers of the East knew 
 the meaning of the Wheel of Praise. Men like Socrates 
 and Plato saw the Circle obscured and distorted in a 
 fog. The vision of Shakespeare, and Milton, and 
 Newton, and Tennyson, was clearer and more com- 
 plete than that of the Grecian sages, but limited by 
 accidents of place and time. Goethe saw more and 
 more fully as he advanced in years, and his horizon 
 widened ; but he always carried about with him so 
 much old moth-eaten furniture that his eyes were never 
 quite free from dust. 
 
 When the spiritual genius talks with God in the 
 Garden, the animals feel that he belongs to a higher 
 order of beings. He has been born again, and moves 
 in a world of spirits. A square is no longer a square 
 to him, but is also a symbol of the idea of rectitude. 
 The supreme satisfaction of genius is the recognition 
 of Archetypal Emotion, or of the Word Incarnate ; and 
 this is indeed the test of true genius, and the Way to 
 all the riches of wisdom. Without knowledge of the 
 Way all search for Truth is only a stumbling among 
 pitfalls in a wilderness ; and the poor wretch trying to 
 be a light to himself is puzzled and bewildered by the 
 confident assurance of such a hymn as 
 
 " O happy day that fixed my choice 
 On Thee, my Saviour and my God ; 
 Well may this glowing heart rejoice, 
 And tell its raptures all abroad." 
 
 The undoubting certainty of the man of genius seems 
 to the common human animal to be unreasoning 
 o.m. s 
 
258 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 obstinacy ; as the conduct of the swallows in flying 
 away from a comfortable home in England while the 
 sun is shining may be supposed to seem to an ox an 
 abandonment to chance, or an inexplicable act of folly. 
 When Columbus knew that the earth is a sphere he 
 could not doubt that by continuing to sail towards the 
 west he must arrive at land ; but he seemed a madman 
 to those who had no definite notions about the form of 
 the earth, and who were incapable of understanding the 
 reasons for his belief. 
 
 There are multitudes of men of genius ; but most of 
 them are content to rest in well-known regions, and to 
 see only what others have seen, so that they are hardly 
 aware of the gift that is in them. No man obtains 
 permanent honour without doing something to deserve 
 it. The genius may have no better intellect, and no 
 better memory, and no more self-control than his neigh- 
 bours ; but he must have seen some ideal, and his 
 success will depend upon the energy and constancy 
 with which he works in trying to reveal his ideal. He 
 must, employ his talent to gain other talents ; and how- 
 ever dim his vision may be he will prove a guide and 
 counsellor to some around him. The most richly 
 endowed man of genius must be the greatest worker 
 according to his ideal, or else he is condemned in his 
 own eyes. He knows that much is required of him to 
 whom much is given. The servant must take no credit 
 to himself, since he knows that he possesses nothing of 
 value but what has been bestowed upon him as a free 
 gift. His genius is an illumination of his spirit con- 
 ferred by the Creative Spirit, and is to be employed by 
 
INTUITION. 259 
 
 means of all the powers of his mind. Hence the 
 Hebrew prophets were accustomed to speak of the 
 responsibility pressing upon them as "The burden of the 
 Lord " ; and the same idea receives poetical expression 
 from Kipling: 
 
 11 One instant's toil to Thee denied 
 Stands all Eternity's offence. 
 Of that I did with Thee to guide, 
 To Thee, through Thee, be excellence." 
 
 Thus it may seem that the greatest genius is the most 
 unfortunate of men, crushed by a sense of weakness and 
 imperfection, while compelled to attempt the most 
 gigantic and perilous tasks. God has His favourites, 
 and this is sometimes made a subject of complaint by 
 those who are not chosen ; yet when a soldier is chosen 
 to lead a forlorn hope those who denounce favouritism 
 are not at all anxious to take his place. Each man is 
 selected to perform the work in which he can find his 
 supreme delight ; and if he is miserable it is because he 
 has turned aside from his own task. The weakly timid 
 man is never required to take the post of danger ; the 
 bold man finds in danger the joy of life. The work 
 which is degrading to the animal man is seen by the 
 spiritual man surrounded by a golden halo of heavenly 
 significance. The vision of the future triumph sustains 
 both physical and mental energy throughout the most 
 exhausting perils and the most excruciating sufferings. 
 The seer can endure because seeing Him who is 
 invisible ; and the perfect confidence of childhood, find- 
 ing new beauties revealed at every step, and new 
 
 s 2 
 
260 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 delights provided by every moment of existence, remains 
 till death, in spite of all the pain and disappointment by 
 which the Adversary tests the faith. 
 
 11 Who holds by Thee hath Heaven in fee 
 
 To gild his dross thereby ; 
 And knowledge sure that he endure 
 
 A child until he die 
 For to make plain that man's disdain 
 
 Is but new Beauty's birth 
 For to possess in loneliness 
 
 The joy of all the earth." 
 
 Goethe possessed some spiritual vision, which became 
 clearer as he exercised it in endeavouring to see formal 
 causes behind the transient material. He understood 
 that the intelligent mind can never be satisfied, or 
 become in harmony with its environment, until it 
 knows the object for which it was designed, or its place 
 in nature ; and that the object of existence cannot be 
 known except by seeing the archetypal idea, or the per- 
 fect form. He tried to look from the stand-point of the 
 Creator, so as to see man in his true origin ; and those 
 who would follow him in his explorations must be 
 Heaven-born, or must recognise themselves as the 
 brethren of angels and not of apes. The mere animal 
 man cannot breathe the atmosphere into which it is 
 necessary to soar. 
 
 The story of Faust appears at first sight to be an 
 attempt to describe how an earnest man of great ability 
 and extensive knowledge seeks mental health and satis- 
 faction without taking the Bible as his guide ; but it is 
 really proof, by the experience of a life, that the Way 
 
INTUITION. 26l 
 
 to happiness cannot be found, even by intuition, except 
 by obedience to the Perfect Man. The hour of satis- 
 faction never came until the old man forgot self in his 
 attempt to benefit others ; but he did not act according 
 to his final cause, and never found rest until upon his 
 death-bed. 
 
 The way to wisdom and happiness is now very plainly 
 taught, but we do not like it. Each wishes to learn for 
 himself, and to follow his own devices. The wander- 
 ings of one who has gone astray are apt to be more 
 interesting than the career of the steady, obedient man, 
 who never loses sight of the right path ; and the most 
 timorous travellers find delight in reading of the contests 
 which explorers have with savage enemies, and the 
 perils they encounter by sea and land. When a man 
 returns enfeebled and crippled for life as the result of 
 his wanderings, he is often regarded as somewhat of a 
 hero by those who have remained at home ; and yet 
 most of them feel that it is more comfortable to be 
 without so much experience of the world when it has to 
 be so dearly paid for. 
 
 Faust found his animal nature strongly impelling him 
 to sensual selfishness; but he struggled after perfect 
 archetypes against the fiercest efforts of the enemy to 
 obstruct his path and drag him down. He knew that 
 the secret of life can only be found by seeing the Perfect 
 Man ; and yet his blunders and sins brought him much 
 suffering and misery, so that the history of his career 
 provides many useful lessons. The wisest man may be 
 induced by curiosity, or comradeship, or perversity, to 
 venture into the wilderness among enemies, and the 
 
262 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 accounts given by previous explorers ought to be care- 
 fully studied by all who are liable to wander in a 
 mysterious region where the landmarks are few and the 
 bye-paths are infinite ; for when the face is turned away 
 from the right path, the Pillar of Cloud that beckons 
 by day and the Pillar of Fire that guides by night cease 
 to be visible. 
 
 Faust had many glimpses of perfect archetypes, and 
 enjoyed a momentary happiness before death, so that 
 his zigzag course was controlled by a dominant true 
 idea. There are teachers in the present day who never 
 have the faintest glimmer of an archetypal idea, and 
 never have the remotest notion of the object of man's 
 existence ; so that they do not know the meaning of 
 spiritual satisfaction, and have no hope of rest except 
 in annihilation if that can be ground of hope. What 
 was the condition of mind that enabled Faust to gain 
 some spiritual vision and real knowledge capable of 
 bestowing happiness at last, while other men of great 
 intellect, and apparently of more estimable moral 
 character, remain blind and ignorant ? 
 
 Words were to Faust merely the clothing of thoughts, 
 and matter the revelation of spirit ; and he longed to 
 know archetypal ideas which implies that he had some 
 reverence for the Designer, and desired communion 
 with Him. 
 
 " Oh, for a glance into the earth ! 
 
 To see below its dark foundations 
 Life's embryo seeds before their birth, 
 
 And Nature's silent operations. 
 Thus end at once this vexing fever 
 
 Of words mere words repeated ever." 
 
INTUITION. 263 
 
 A man must know his imperfection before religion 
 can have any meaning for him ; and Faust was con- 
 scious of his own ignorance and helplessness before 
 he longed for the Perfect, and the wisdom that the 
 vision of the Perfect gives. The material could not 
 satisfy him, since he wished to know the object of 
 creation ; and the machinery of both macrocosm and 
 microcosm is so bewildering in complexity that the 
 unaided mortal can never discover how all the parts 
 work together in harmony. Death seemed preferable 
 to life without real knowledge. 
 
 11 Whate'er I knew, or thought I knew, 
 Seems now unmeaning or untrue. 
 The fancy, too, has died away, 
 The hope that I might, in my day, 
 Instruct and elevate mankind. 
 Thus robbed of learning's only pleasure, 
 Without dominion, rank or treasure, 
 Without one joy that earth can give, 
 Could dog were I a dog so live ? " 
 
 Why does one so wretched, and without any fear of 
 the future, hesitate to commit suicide ? The singing 
 of the Easter Hymn recalls the teaching of his childhood, 
 which the unsullied open mind knew by intuition to be 
 true. 
 
 " Christ is arisen, 
 
 The Lord hath ascended ; 
 The dominion of death 
 And corruption is ended." 
 
 When a man has recognised that the grave is not 
 a prison, suicide becomes unmeaning, for life is seen to 
 
264 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 be one, though apparently divided by the gloomy portals. 
 We do not leave the atmosphere behind us by passing 
 from one room into another. The Light of the World 
 had been recognised ; and hence the profound con- 
 sciousness of the perfection and design pervading all 
 things. It would have been false to life to have described 
 Faust as persevering in his struggles to the end without 
 having had originally a vision of the Person capable of 
 sustaining him. 
 
 '* For, seeking to supply the natural dearth, 
 We learn to prize things loftier than the earth, 
 And the heart seeks support and light from Heaven. 
 And such support and light oh, is it given 
 Anywhere but in the New Testament ? " 
 
 Faust might have lived and died a common, clever, 
 human animal, finding his supreme delight in intellectual 
 combats or sensual gratification, if it had not been for 
 his passionate longing to instruct and elevate mankind, 
 which was the result of his knowledge of the final cause 
 of man learned from the Bible. Sympathy with every 
 toiling mortal, and delight in seeing others happy, even 
 when neither refined nor educated, must be character- 
 istic of the seeker of truth as well as of the teacher. It 
 is not enough to be conscious of ignorance and imper- 
 fection, and to long for what is perfect, unless there is 
 recognition of the moral perfection which sacrifices self 
 to lighten the burden of another. Even the momentary 
 joy in life which brightened the death-bed of Faust will 
 not be found by the scholar who never mingles with 
 the common people, or speaks with sympathy to the 
 
INTUITION. 265 
 
 labourer who feeds him. The soldier's song, the 
 student's passion, the servant's courtship, the beggar's 
 ditty, the peasant's dance, must all awaken kindly 
 sympathy in the true philosopher, whose greatest 
 sorrow is his inability to save the world from suffering, 
 and to render all men happy. 
 
 Faust knew something of the way to true happiness 
 the tragedy of his life was due to his attempt to follow 
 his own devices. Childhood was a time of unspeakable 
 joy in everything ; but that happy period was followed 
 by a long life without a single day of satisfaction with- 
 out a moment of peaceful rest in which the better self 
 could feel delight, or even calm content. The spiritual 
 life, which alone confers bliss, demands purity and self- 
 denial ; and those whose eyes have been opened, and 
 who yet refuse to abandon sensuality as the great 
 delight of life, are compelled to seek satisfaction in the 
 spiritualism of the dark seance and demonology. They 
 call upon any spirit but the Spirit of Christ. 
 
 In his search for the Mothers, or the archetypal forms, 
 Faust accepted assistance from Mephistopheles ; which 
 was an exceedingly stupid thing to do, but which most 
 of us are doing every day. It is very evident that the 
 Adversary will not direct man to the true ideal ; and 
 though we may boast like Solomon that even in the 
 company of the devil our wisdom remains with us, so 
 that we can criticise our own and our neighbour's folly, 
 our strength is gradually undermined until the will loses 
 the power of doing that which the reason and conscience 
 loudly declare ought to be done. Faust knew that in 
 order to arrive at the origin of the machine we must cast 
 
266 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 aside atom after atom of the material until there is 
 nothing left to the physical vision, and that in the 
 Nothing of the materialist the All is to be found ; but 
 in asking Mephistopheles to teach him how to find the 
 All, he acted as foolishly as the captain of a ship accept- 
 ing a wrecker for his pilot, like a sinner anxious for 
 forgiveness seeking counsel from a believer in the evolu- 
 tion of man from animals as to the means by which 
 pardon may be obtained from Perfect Justice. 
 
 It is reasonable to suppose that a perfect soul must 
 have a perfect body to reveal it, and it is a positive and 
 pleasant duty to admire physical beauty. The distinc- 
 tion of the sexes is the source of all the charm of life ; 
 and yet sex must be lost sight of when we seek the 
 Formal Cause. In the analysis of protoplasm we cannot 
 introduce into our work any question of the sex of the 
 individual which it composed ; and when we go further 
 in separating the atoms to find the life, it matters nothing 
 whether the life is male or female. Spirits are not to 
 be seen as male and female, but as intellectual and 
 emotional, so that any thought of animal passion blinds 
 the eye. Though the Eternal Feminine was spiritualised 
 at the last, Faust's mind was dominated by the idea of 
 woman as a female animal. That is why he asked 
 Mephistopheles instead of the Creator to guide him. 
 Many of the most gifted men struggle between two 
 masters in this respect, and live in alternating scenes 
 of reckless passion and miserable remorse. The Eternal 
 Masculine is superior to the Eternal Feminine, and 
 Justice must be satisfied before Love can be genuine. 
 
 In reference to Faust's demands for the means 
 
INTUITION. 267 
 
 of seeing the ideal human forms, Mephistopheles 
 says : 
 
 " Reluctantly do I 
 Unveil a higher Mystery goddesses 
 August enthrone themselves in loneliness ; 
 Place none around them ; glimpse of Time still less. 
 They are we speak not of them, scarce will think 
 They are the Mothers. 
 
 * * * * # 
 
 Goddesses beyond the range 
 Known to you mortals. We of them would keep 
 Strict silence. For their home you may scrape deep 
 Under the undermost." 
 
 The student may ask what books he is to read in 
 order to learn the meaning of this. Faust, as materi- 
 alist, asked, What is the road to the Mothers ? but the 
 reply was : 
 
 " The road ! 
 
 There's no road. Road ! road to where none have trod 
 
 Ever none ever will tread ! road to where 
 
 I warrant never suppliant bent in prayer, 
 
 Nor ever will hereafter ! Art thou ready ? 
 
 No locks are there no bolts to be pushed back ; 
 
 But solitudes whirl round in endless eddy. 
 
 Canst grasp in thought what no words can express 
 
 Vacuity and utter loneliness ? " 
 
 In order to discover the origin of man and the perfect 
 archetypes of all things, we must free ourselves from the 
 material, or must carry on the process of abstraction 
 until we separate the essence from the substance, as is 
 done by the Hindu in the exercise of Yoga. The Prince 
 of this World is not likely to give genuine instructions 
 
268 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 to the seeker of Truth how to emancipate himself from 
 the material, since his great aim is to lead astray those 
 who seek such emancipation. Satan must try to keep 
 a man content with mere animal existence as long as 
 possible, and to persuade him that there is nothing 
 whatever to be known beyond the sensual and the 
 material ; and when a man has awoke to the fact that 
 he is a spirit, and that there is a spiritual world around 
 him, Satan must try to put him on a wrong spiritual 
 course. Faust had already seen beyond the material 
 when he called up the Earth-Spirit, and there was no 
 possibility of persuading him to treat the spiritual world 
 as non-existent, or as of no interest to him ; for a man 
 who has once seen can never doubt. The aim of 
 Mephistopheles, therefore, was to try to mislead the 
 explorer and to pervert his mind. Faust already knew 
 that the material must be left behind in search for the 
 primitive man, and the great question is, How is it to 
 be left behind ? Mephistopheles tells him to stamp on 
 the earth, and adds that it is all the same whether we 
 ascend or descend, since we get away from the earth in 
 either case. 
 
 " Sink, then ! I might say rise 'tis one. Fly far 
 From earth from all existences that are, 
 Into the realms of Image unconfined. 
 Gloat upon charms that long have ceased to be : 
 Like cloud -wreaths rising, rolling, the combined 
 Army of Apparitions rush on thee. 
 Wave high the key, and keep them at far length." 
 
 The physical truth was only partially true, and 
 concealed the metaphysical error. If a man could 
 
INTUITION. 26g 
 
 descend a million miles he would certainly get away 
 from the earth, but the natural limitations of his being 
 prevent him from descending ten miles ; so that in the 
 attempt to get away from the earth by descending, we 
 merely immerse ourselves in the material. A man who 
 has spiritual vision may see something into the depths 
 of being by kicking the earth from beneath him and 
 studying it from a distance as something he has done 
 with, but he cannot thus learn the perfect archetypes 
 in the Eternal Mind. The Earth and its concerns must 
 not be spurned from us, and if we make the attempt we 
 are certain to fall back helpless upon it. If it is only 
 selfish curiosity or passion that makes us kick at the 
 material, we become more completely its slaves ; 
 whereas if we rise above the earth in the desire to 
 elevate humanity by bringing to it the light of the 
 knowledge of the Perfect, in order to restore the broken 
 harmony of existence, the material becomes as a sea of 
 glass to our enraptured gaze, and in the enjoyment of 
 unfading scenes of perfect beauty we find ourselves the 
 possessors of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 "The virtue there is in it, understand ! 
 The Key will scent the Mothers to their lair. 
 Follow his guidance down, and you are there. 
 Bring but the Tripod hither, and from night 
 Hero and Heroine you may raise to light." 
 
 Mephistopheles spoke truly when he said that no one 
 can know the archetypal ideals until he has seen the 
 Blazing Tripod, and touched it with the Key ; but it 
 seems out of character to represent the Father of Lies 
 
270 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 as appreciating such knowledge, or as giving anyone 
 such a Key. The explanation may be that, as Mephis- 
 topheles was bound to obey Faust, he had to obey him 
 even in the search for the Perfect; and that this is 
 Goethe's meaning seems indicated by the grumbles of 
 the Adversary at the task demanded of him. Faust 
 already knew that in the origin of man the spiritual 
 must precede the material, and that the Archetypes 
 must be sought in the Light of the Divine Trinity ; and 
 he had turned with disgust from the orgies of Auerbach's 
 Cellar, and from the reckless abandonment to vicious 
 passion in the Witches' Kitchen. Even the pomp and 
 glory of the world at the Emperor's Court had failed to 
 give abiding pleasure to the man who had communed 
 with the spiritual, and Mephistopheles was playing a 
 losing game ; so that all he could do was to give true 
 instructions when compelled, and try to lead astray 
 when opportunity offered. Faust had the true Key to 
 the Perfect and the Beautiful before, for it was Love for 
 them that was leading him on ; and so he says : 
 
 " As I grasp the Key 
 My heart expands to the great work, and strength 
 Is given me." 
 
 The open profession of his love for the Perfect even 
 to the Devil, and though only for the physically perfect, 
 caused his heart to expand ; but he accepted the Key 
 from the hand of the Deceiver, and thus his spiritual 
 vision was corrupted by his longing for the sensual 
 animal forms. He went downward to find the Perfect; 
 and the trinity he saw was the trinity of the animal 
 
INTUITION. 271 
 
 body. Yet the devil dreads the desire for perfection of 
 any kind, and the true physical perfection of man is 
 impossible without perfection of the mind ; so we find 
 Mephistopheles anxious to prevent his captive from 
 trying to approach close to the Ideal. The Key is 
 to be waved high, and the Perfect kept at arm's 
 length. 
 
 It seems strange that a stamp upon the earth should 
 be the means of descending to the Mothers, and also of 
 again ascending to the material world. The first stamp 
 is the evidence of dissatisfaction with mere animal 
 existence, and of the longing to get away from the 
 Imperfect : the stamp which procures immediate return 
 is the sign of being wearied with the Perfect. Faust 
 did not stamp the second time, as his adviser expected, 
 since the love of the Perfect was the deepest feeling of 
 his nature ; and instead of merely touching the Tripod 
 with the Key, he grasped with animal passion at the 
 Beautiful and dared to compare himself with the Perfect. 
 The sudden revelation of his own worthlessness made 
 him swoon away. Mephistopheles could not foresee 
 what would happen, though certain that he had poisoned 
 the mind of the inquirer. Faust is maddened by sen- 
 sual passion when he sees the Beautiful ; but he learns 
 that it is impossible to combine spiritual longing for 
 perfect moral beauty with the sensuality which demands 
 the degradation of the ideal. Those who see the true 
 ideals lose sight of the animalism of evolution, and are 
 inspired with reverential admiration ; and instead of 
 being shattered in strength by the vision, they rejoice 
 in clearer knowledge and renovated strength of mind. 
 
272 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 The clear recognition of archetypal ideas implies the 
 utter discomfiture of the devil, since his success in 
 opposing human happiness depends upon deception and 
 concealment, and must be impossible when he is fairly 
 driven into the open. Ever since the time of Adam, 
 the Adversary has endeavoured to keep men blind to 
 their highest interests by occupying their minds with 
 contentions over empty words, or by substituting false 
 for true ideals ; and now the desire for scientific know- 
 ledge of Nature, and for illumination bright enough to 
 reveal the truth behind the words, has compelled him 
 to make a last great effort to perpetuate the reign of 
 darkness. With this object a flood of fuming evolu- 
 tionary slime was recently vomited over the earth to 
 poison the springs of knowledge, and to destroy belief 
 in perfect archetypes by enveloping all in fog. The 
 ears of the people became obstructed by the filth, and 
 their eyes dimmed by clouds of noxious vapour ; while 
 even the purity-loving teachers had their tongues so 
 clogged that their utterances had no distinct meaning. 
 Those who descend into the earth to seek the source of 
 wisdom and happiness, like the revellers in Auerbach's 
 Cellar, may think themselves extremely clever, and may 
 be confident of their ability to describe and criticise 
 without knowing ; but they naturally suffer most from 
 poisonous exhalations, and become quite intoxicated by 
 the sour sap which they fancy wine. The Air of 
 Heaven has now almost dissipated the fumes, and the 
 Water of Life has almost washed away the slime, so 
 that the victims of delusion are rubbing their eyes in 
 bewilderment and asking one another where they are. 
 
INTUITION. 273 
 
 The peasants dwelling on the hills have been looking 
 down all the time in astonishment at the great ones of 
 the earth floundering about in the mud of the ditches 
 while fancying themselves the leaders of thought. 
 Those who know the Ideal can build upon a founda- 
 tion that endures for ever, and is subject to no changes 
 of evolution. 
 
 The spiritually blind cannot imagine what it is that 
 guides the artist as he progresses in his attempts to 
 realise an ideal. The artist sees the beautiful statue 
 in his mind when they see nothing but a shapeless 
 stone. There seems nothing strange in the drawing of 
 circles and squares by a child in imitation of copies 
 placed before it ; but the artist may have a complex 
 ideal in his mind which he can only slowly and imper- 
 fectly embody. The more complex the ideal the more 
 engrossing it becomes, and the greater the satisfaction 
 found in it. Christians see in Christ the Ideal of 
 Emotion, though they may not be able to explain what 
 they mean by this. Those who have not emerged 
 beyond the stage of the intellectual animal, and who, 
 consequently, know nothing of their origin or destiny, 
 think it evidence of ecstatic madness when they hear 
 others singing : 
 
 " Jesus, Thou Joy of loving hearts ! 
 
 Thou Fount of life, Thou Light of men ! 
 From the best bliss that earth imparts 
 We turn unfilled to Thee again." 
 
 The devil himself is never vividly realised by any one 
 except the genius who is a moral teacher ; and since 
 the genius is the only man capable of revealing arche- 
 
 o.m. T 
 
274 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 typal ideas, he is the foe against whom Satan concen- 
 trates his fury. The animal man never consciously 
 comes in contact with the Adversary, since there is 
 nothing in his grovelling life that tends to the moral 
 elevation of mankind, and therefore nothing worth 
 openly opposing ; but the whole powers of hell are 
 always summoned to discredit, weaken, and strangle 
 the moral genius, so that he is not left in any doubt 
 about the existence of his personal enemy. When the 
 genius falls into the trap set for him he is held up to 
 scorn as a guide who can never prove trustworthy ; 
 when he fails to explain astronomy to those who have 
 never learned the alphabet he is denounced as an insane 
 dreamer ; and when he ventures into Vanity Fair all 
 the murderous rage of the sons of darkness is inflamed 
 against him. 
 
 The man who does not know the devil as a personal 
 adversary may be a very good citizen, and may go 
 through life as a useful animal much esteemed for 
 many good qualities ; but he will never be able to 
 appreciate the thoughts which must exercise the minds 
 of the teachers of the world. The moment he wakes to 
 his own imperfection, and strives to overcome the 
 selfishness which makes him seek profit and enjoyment 
 regardless of the welfare of others, he will find his 
 progress opposed by a very potent though immaterial 
 Person ; and the more valuable his teaching, and the 
 more closely he tries to approach the Ideal, the more 
 strenuous become the efforts to overthrow him, and 
 the more distinctly the personality of his adversary is 
 revealed. 
 
INTUITION. 275 
 
 Mephistopheles confesses the truth when he says that 
 devils dislike to speak of archetypal forms or ideals, and 
 even try to avoid thinking of them. At the present time 
 the whole energy of Satan is put forth to keep mankind 
 in darkness by turning away attention from the definite 
 to the indefinite from certain knowledge to unmeaning 
 words. The most insidious and dangerous device for 
 undermining religion with which the Church has had to 
 contend during the present century has been the gradual 
 substitution of vague general notions for certain belief 
 in Personality. Instead of addressing ourselves with 
 confidence to the living, unchangeable, Personal God, 
 we are invited to seek for satisfaction in the contempla- 
 tion of ever-changing, all-pervading force ; instead of 
 recognising and successfully resisting the machinations 
 of the personal devil, we are to suffer hopelessly the 
 inevitable results of hereditary tendencies and uncon- 
 trollable changes of environment ; and instead of study- 
 ing man as a responsible individual being, we are to 
 dissipate our attention upon the ceaseless changes of 
 appearance presented by an infinite ocean of protoplasm 
 and a bottomless abyss of slime. 
 
 The description given by Goethe of the method he 
 adopted in his search for the primitive man is not easily 
 made intelligible to the ordinary student, and does not 
 give much assistance to a beginner in his efforts to 
 understand the meaning of those who profess to enjoy 
 absolute certainty of knowledge which cannot be com- 
 municated except to the initiated, and who, at the 
 same time, say that they are quite unable to initiate 
 anyone. Vision is certain to be gained by everyone 
 
276 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 who seeks it with sincerity, and it will gain in extent 
 and distinctness by exercise. How are the weak eyes 
 to be exercised that they may no longer see men as 
 trees walking ? The spiritual vision can only be 
 thoroughly developed and cultivated by the use of 
 parables. " Without a parable spake He not unto 
 them." Perseverance in the study of parables will act 
 as gymnastics to the athlete, so that powers of vision 
 may be acquired and feats of spiritual comprehension 
 performed which at one time seemed impossible. 
 
 The best course of lessons in spiritual vision is to be 
 had in the study of the Bible, but many modern works 
 provide examples of clear insight. Shakespeare and 
 Bunyan, having been instructed in the Bible, recognised 
 by spiritual vision the final and formal causes of man, 
 and wrote of the means of gaining harmony with ideal 
 conditions so as to obtain enduring satisfaction and 
 heavenly joy. The meaning of a genuine poet, as 
 the meaning of the Bible, is recognised by spiritual 
 vision, which no animal possesses ; and he who cannot 
 see beyond the material and the physical is deficient in 
 the faculty which specially distinguishes the man from 
 the brute. 
 
 Darwin was remarkable for his accurate observation 
 of physical facts, and his honesty in recording them ; 
 but in his old age he lamented his own lack of the 
 highest human faculty. To him the language of the 
 seer was wearying and unmeaning, so that he could not 
 understand why so many people found delight in poetry ; 
 yet he must have had some degree of vision, or he would 
 not have lamented or known his deficiency, and his 
 
INTUITION. 277 
 
 attempts to learn the purpose or design of things give 
 evidence of some ability to see from the stand-point of 
 the Designer. Very few of the blind are as honest as 
 Darwin ; or perhaps they are quite honest in denying 
 their inferiority, because they are not conscious of it. 
 Their only heaven is among dust and worms. 
 
 Every sane man is engaged all his life in striving to 
 realise ideals, though his conception of the ideal is often 
 very imperfect or even erroneous. The conception of 
 the ideal always becomes clearer in proportion to our 
 honesty and earnestness in seeking for it, and Kipling 
 makes a blunder when he says in his beautiful address 
 " To the True Romance" : 
 
 " Thy face is far from this our war, 
 
 Our call and counter cry : 
 I shall not find Thee quick and kind, 
 
 Nor know Thee till I die. 
 Enough for me in dreams to see 
 
 And touch Thy garment's hem : 
 Thy feet have trod so near to God 
 
 I may not follow them." 
 
 The Ideal is never far from those that truly seek it, 
 and is never indifferent to the call of need. So far from 
 being unable to recognise it as quick and kind, the very 
 essence of our desire is the instinctive certainty with 
 which we regard it as life-giving, and as partaking of 
 our nature ; and instead of being unable to follow in 
 the footsteps, we are bound to follow, though it may be 
 afar off. There is no possibility of achievement or pro- 
 gress except by following the Ideal, and all true effort 
 
278 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 is certain to be rewarded. This is virtually admitted 
 in the next verse, which says : 
 
 " But we that love, but we that prove 
 Thine excellent august, 
 While we adore, discover more 
 Thee perfect, wise and just." 
 
 The appreciation of the perfect must be gained by 
 attempts to improve the imperfect, and man finds enjoy- 
 ment in life in proportion to his ability and industry in 
 improving himself. If a boy of intelligence and energy 
 is not provided with fragments to put together in 
 attempts to make something perfect, he will convert 
 something perfect into fragments for the pleasure of 
 trying to restore them to their original harmonious 
 combination. He longs for opportunities of displaying 
 his skill, and is triumphant when he can work according 
 to geometrical rules. Ideals are as necessary to the 
 child's mind as blood is to its body ; and parents are 
 guilty of murdering the souls of their children by starva- 
 tion when they hand them over to a system of educa- 
 tion devoid of definite ideals. The paternity home in 
 which the word father is never mentioned is a mockery 
 of a child's best aspirations. 
 
 The more devoutly we adore the Ideal the more 
 sensitive we become to imperfections ; so that it some- 
 times seems a positive misfortune to be much superior 
 to others owing to the increase of sensitiveness. The 
 refined musician is made miserable by discord which 
 seems delightful to the badly-trained ear ; and the 
 building which seemed a beautiful church to genera- 
 
INTUITION. 279 
 
 tions of pious peasants is rudely condemned as an ugly 
 old barn by the aesthetic architect. Nevertheless, every 
 man must go forward according to his ability and light, 
 even if he go alone, and enjoyment will become more 
 and more intense. A Handel or a Mozart must rise to 
 find communion with the heavenly choir when genius 
 places him upon a pinnacle of loneliness on earth. 
 
 The intelligent mind cannot rest satisfied until it sees 
 all parts of the machine working in perfect order, or 
 until it is in harmony with the mind of the designer. 
 Man longs for satisfaction, and cannot find it except by 
 being conscious of working in harmony with God. The 
 Creator cannot be satisfied with anything short of per- 
 fection, and it is impossible for imperfect man to make 
 himself perfect again ; so that permanent misery would 
 seem to be the inevitable lot of mankind. Fortunately 
 a father does not lose delight in his child because of 
 faults if there is a sincere desire to correct them, or a 
 genuine loving spirit animating the deformed body ; and 
 the Ideal that a man longs to resemble may be accepted 
 as his better self. 
 
 The wise man recognises himself as the child of God, 
 and knows that the great purpose of all his activities is 
 to regain the original bliss of Eden by striving after the 
 Ideal in obedience to the instructions of his Father. 
 There may be many weeds always ready to spring up 
 under the influence of sunshine and shower, and worms 
 will always be at work to defile and obliterate the 
 paths ; but the Gardener will receive praise in proportion 
 to the energy and earnestness he displays in his efforts 
 to preserve purity and order. The more fertile the 
 
280 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Garden the more abundant the weeds, and the more 
 difficult the task of the Gardener. Hence the greater 
 the sinner the greater the saint. All Christians sing 
 the hymns written by a man who was an adulterer and 
 a murderer, and who was yet immeasurably superior to 
 the vast majority of those who would attempt to judge 
 him ; for in many cases the critic has escaped hanging, 
 not from any virtue in him, but because he has not 
 strength and courage to give expression to the evil spirit 
 that is in him. 
 
 A man is not great on account of the placidity of his 
 life, but on account of the intensity of his struggles 
 against evil in his efforts to know and gain the Ideal. 
 The weak and the timid are not required to do difficult 
 work, but they must not fancy themselves capable of 
 criticising those who sound the most treacherous waters 
 and erect beacons on the summits of the most dangerous 
 rocks. Those who have wandered farthest have incurred 
 most peril and may have learned by grievous suffering 
 how to save others from calamity, and how to point the 
 way to new treasures and greater happiness. While 
 the dweller on the plain remains at ease, ignorant of the 
 beauty and grandeur of the mountains, and of the 
 means of conquering the ocean so as to make the pro- 
 ducts of various climes available to all, he stumbles as 
 a worm among irregularities which reveal nothing to 
 him, and is in doubt regarding everything beyond the 
 limits of his horizon. His ignorance leaves him the 
 plaything of every accident of climate, and renders him 
 the credulous dupe of the inventor of the most absurd 
 theory of geography, so long as he has no certain vision 
 
INTUITION. 28l 
 
 of the Circle. The explorer reassures him and saves 
 him by circumnavigating the globe. 
 
 If a man has not peace of mind he is in an abnormal 
 condition ; he is not quite healthy or sane. He does 
 not thoroughly know himself and his needs, or does not 
 avail himself of the means provided for securing satis- 
 faction. Whether in youth or old age, the really sane 
 man has such delight in Nature that he would prolong 
 for ever the joy of contemplating the beauties which 
 surround him and the ecstasy of communing with the 
 Creator, and would say to every fleeting moment, " Ah, 
 yet delay ! thou art so fair ! " 
 
 How can a man know his wants, or the means of 
 satisfying them, if he does not know himself ? How 
 can he know himself and his defects except by com- 
 parison with the Archetypal Man ? Where can he find 
 the Archetypal Man ? 
 
 The long and indefinite history of animal life on the 
 earth cannot provide man with any certain knowledge 
 of himself, or of his origin, or of his relation to the 
 world around him, or of the object of his existence. To 
 the evolutionist there can be no Archetypal Form, 
 and therefore no definite knowledge. Nothing can be 
 regarded as abnormal except by those who know the 
 normal ; and he who has no vision of the Perfect cannot 
 be certain what is false and what is true. 
 
 Some writers on man's origin, and his relation to God 
 and Nature, begin by stating that certain knowledge 
 cannot possibly be attained, and that no discussion of 
 the great problems of life brings us any nearer to their 
 solution ; and then they go on to add volumes of words 
 
282 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 to those already existing. It is folly to pay any attention 
 to a man who persists in giving his opinion upon a sub- 
 ject after confessing that he is ignorant of it, and that 
 he does not believe certain knowledge of it to be possible. 
 The only reliable guide must be able to say, I speak 
 because I know. Those who do not know must not 
 assume that others are in the same deplorable plight. 
 Logarithms may be used and understood by the few, 
 though the many may think them quite incomprehen- 
 sible. The most famous scholar who does not know 
 Adam and Eve must blunder hopelessly when he 
 attempts to discuss anthropology, or to explain human 
 relations, domestic, social, political, moral, or religious. 
 In such matters he can only be a blind leader, and ought 
 to be sent to hospital. 
 
 Before the soul can be satisfied the fundamental 
 questions of the intellect must be answered. Whence ? 
 Why ? Whither ? Who can tell man his place in 
 nature his relation to the universe, to his fellow and 
 to the Creator so that he may obtain happiness by 
 living in harmony with his environment ? Who can 
 make the crooked paths straight, and the rough places 
 plain ; unravel the entangled, and give order for con- 
 fusion ; convert the swamp into a meadow, and make 
 the wilderness a garden of delight ? Who can give rest 
 to the weary, point out the path of bliss to the despair- 
 ing, comfort the bereaved, and enable the wanderer in 
 a chaos of uncertainties to rejoice in the security of 
 home ? Who can reconcile the Christian and the 
 Buddhist, the Moslem and the Hindoo, by enabling 
 all to see clearly in the Light that is but One ? 
 
INTUITION. 283 
 
 All thoughful students long to learn the meaning of 
 the struggle and the failure that make up the tragedy of 
 life. Generation after generation marches across the 
 field of time to the common doom. Ruthless enemies 
 swarm on every side to mock the efforts of the traveller, 
 to blast his energies, to mutilate his form, and finally to 
 cast him into a horrible pit, where he is eaten up by 
 worms. There is no chance of escape. Why, then, 
 continue to strive against the inevitable ? If we are 
 the products of inexorable evolution, without hope of 
 sympathy or help from a Supreme Intelligence, the 
 perpetuation of the human race is the most appalling 
 act of criminal madness. 
 
 The importance assigned to any teacher in the history 
 of thought must always be determined by the clearness 
 of his vision of Ideals ; and the highest conceivable ideal 
 is the Ideal Man. Without some degree of such vision, 
 no permanent place could have been gained by a Homer 
 or a Plato, a Gautama or a Confucius, a Zoroaster or 
 a Mohammed ; and to the vision of the Hebrews man- 
 kind owes the foundation which made possible the 
 superstructure of civilisation, since they saw the Grand 
 Design according to which all the complex machinery 
 of the universe works in harmony. The knowledge that 
 can satisfy the mind of every seeker of truth by uniting 
 into one harmonious whole all the seeming contradictions 
 and inconsistencies of life can only be revealed by him 
 who sees his first parents, and, through them, himself 
 capable of communing with the Divine Father. 
 Manners and customs, hopes and aspirations, theories 
 of life and standards of ethics, ceremonies of religion 
 
284 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 and dogmas of theology, all depend upon the vision of 
 the Ideal Man. 
 
 Millions of earnest souls are struggling in the twilight 
 towards the same Supreme Ideals, and yet are arrayed 
 in hostile camps because they are unable to explain 
 to one another what they seek. Spirit fails to speak 
 to spirit because words are the sepulchres and not 
 the living forms of thought. Men do not define 
 clearly what they want. There is diversity of tongues. 
 The material is a barrier to impede progress and 
 obstruct vision ; but, as the Sun of Righteousness is 
 now beaming in splendour upon the earth, the opaque 
 particles are becoming fused together into a sea of 
 glass, so that the Desire of the Nations may be seen 
 by all ; spirits that were impenetrably veiled in prison 
 may know even as they are known ; the hindrances 
 to sight are becoming lenses to reveal the greater 
 glories that were before invisible ; and the whole 
 universe will soon be manifested as the creation and 
 the dwelling-place of Light. 
 
 All difficulties disappear in proportion as we see 
 clearly in the Light of the Creative Mind. What 
 seemed meaningless becomes essential, and apparent 
 sources of weakness are seen to be life-giving. To 
 the student who looks only downwards there is an 
 aimless multiplication of organisms to provide material 
 for an unintelligible and endless succession of wanton 
 butcheries, and nothing is accomplished by all the 
 mighty forces which act and react on one another to 
 cause suffering and death. When the animal man 
 is whining in despair over his inability to discover 
 
INTUITION. 285 
 
 any good in life, and is acting as a curse to humanity 
 by trying to make others as miserable as himself, the 
 moral genius the really sane man he who knows the 
 Christ in the Formal Cause, the man in harmony with his 
 spiritual environment sees the machinery all steadily at 
 work in perfect order under the control of the Infallible 
 Designer, and exclaims : 
 
 " Gods in His heaven 
 All's right with the world." 
 
286 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE BIBLE. 
 
 "For more than a thousand years the great majority 
 of the most highly civilised and instructed nations in 
 the world have confidently believed and passionately 
 maintained that certain writings, which they entitle 
 sacred, occupy a unique position in literature, in that 
 they possess an authority different in kind, and immensely 
 superior in weight, to that of all other books." 
 
 Such is the introductory sentence to Huxley's essays 
 on " Science and Hebrew Tradition " ; and it correctly 
 describes the attitude of all men of sound intelligence 
 and clear knowledge towards the Bible. Not merely 
 for more than one thousand years, but for more than 
 three thousand years, the greatest thinkers have pre- 
 served Sacred Books with profound respect and reverence. 
 Confucius described himself as one who loved and 
 believed in the ancients ; and long before the days of 
 Confucius the wise men in Egypt and Asia treasured 
 the wisdom handed down by the great primitive teachers 
 of mankind. What gives Sacred Books their unique 
 position ? Works on agriculture and mechanics, which 
 would teach something of the nature of the material 
 world and of the physical laws governing phenomena, 
 seem to the human animal of much more importance 
 
THE BIBLE. 287 
 
 than theories respecting his origin and nature ; and yet 
 the most ancient writings of every nation that has an 
 ancient literature treat of the supernatural or the 
 spiritual. Man is a spirit, and therefore cannot live by 
 bread alone. The instinct to seek harmony with the 
 Infinite Spirit is more vital to the normal man than 
 the instinct to eat bread. Multitudes have died for 
 their religion. 
 
 Every Sacred Book deals, however imperfectly or 
 erroneously, with formal and final causes, which are 
 instinctively recognised as of permanent and supreme 
 importance, but which are of no concern to any mere 
 animal. The Whence, and Why, and Whither are 
 discussed. What is the ideal condition ? What are 
 the means to be adopted in order to attain it ? What 
 does the Creator desire us to do ? These are the 
 questions of primary interest to the healthy mind. 
 Modern references to the Creator as the Unknowable, 
 or as a Power, or as Nature, are the result of artificial 
 parasitical conditions and spiritual degradation ; for it 
 is an axiom of consciousness that the Creator of an 
 intelligent being must be of higher intelligence than the 
 creature. Men who stand alone never think of God as 
 mere mechanical power. 
 
 The Bible treats of the nature of man as Man, and 
 as looked upon in comparison with the Perfect ; and in 
 order to be able to appreciate its teaching familiarity 
 with its language is necessary. Those who have used it 
 for regular reading and study in youth easily find in it a 
 guide to the means of gaining the absolute health of 
 mind, or harmony with the Creative Mind, which is 
 
288 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 called the possession of the Kingdom of Heaven ; 
 whereas it is regarded as little more than incoherent 
 fragments of history and fable by those who have 
 neglected the cultivation of the spiritual faculties, and 
 who are not familiar with it. 
 
 The first three chapters of Genesis may be regarded 
 as the foundation of the Bible, and as containing the 
 most ancient philosophy of primitive man of which we 
 have any knowledge, dating back thousands of years 
 before modern literature existed, and telling the relations 
 of man to his Creator, to his wife, to animals and 
 plants, and to the universe. There is no other docu- 
 ment so intrinsically important and interesting. 
 
 The first chapter of Genesis is as follows : 
 
 " In the beginning The Elohim created the heaven 
 and the earth. 
 
 "And the earth was without form, and void; and 
 darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the 
 Spirit of The Elohim moved upon the face of the 
 waters. 
 
 " And The Elohim said, Let there be light ; and 
 there was light. 
 
 " And The Elohim saw the light that it was good ; 
 and The Elohim divided the light from the darkness. 
 
 " And The Elohim called the light Day, and the 
 darkness He called Night. And the evening and the 
 morning were the first day (or, there was evening and 
 there was morning, one day). 
 
 " And The Elohim said, Let there be a firmament in 
 the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters 
 from the waters. 
 
THE BIBLE. 2%Q 
 
 " And The Elohim made the firmament, and divided 
 the waters which were under the firmament from 
 the waters which were above the firmament : and it 
 was so. 
 
 " And The Elohim called the firmament Heaven. 
 And the evening and the morning were the second day. 
 
 "And The Elohim said, Let the waters under the 
 heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the 
 dry land appear : and it was so. 
 
 " And The Elohim called the dry land Earth ; and 
 the gathering together of the waters called He Seas- 
 And The Elohim saw that it was good. 
 
 " And The Elohim said, Let the earth bring forth 
 grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding 
 fruit after its kind whose seed is in itself, upon the 
 earth : and it was so. 
 
 " And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding 
 seed after its kind, and the tree yielding fruit whose 
 seed is in itself after its kind ; and The Elohim saw that 
 it was good. 
 
 " And the evening and the morning were the third 
 day. 
 
 " And The Elohim said, Let there be lights in the 
 firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the 
 night ; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and 
 for days, and years : 
 
 " And let them be for lights in the firmament of the 
 heaven to give light upon the earth : and it was so. 
 
 " And The Elohim made two great lights ; the greater 
 light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the 
 night. He made the stars also. 
 
 o.m. u 
 
290 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 " And The Elohim set them in the firmament of the 
 heaven to give light upon the earth. 
 
 " And to rule over the day and over the night, and to 
 divide the light from the darkness. And The Elohim 
 saw that it was good. 
 
 " And the evening and the morning were the fourth 
 day. 
 
 " And The Elohim said, Let the waters bring forth 
 abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl 
 that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of 
 heaven. 
 
 " And The Elohim created great sea monsters, and 
 every living creature that moveth, which the waters 
 brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every 
 winged fowl after its kind : and The Elohim saw that it 
 was good. 
 
 " And The Elohim blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, 
 and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let 
 fowl multiply in the earth. 
 
 "And the evening and the morning were the fifth 
 day. 
 
 " And The Elohim said, Let the earth bring forth the 
 living creature after its kind, and cattle, and creeping 
 thing, and beast of the earth after its kind : and it 
 was so. 
 
 " And The Elohim made the beast of the earth after 
 its kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing 
 that creepeth upon the earth after its kind : and The 
 Elohim saw that it was good. 
 
 " And The Elohim said, Let Us make man in Our 
 image, after Our likeness, and let them have dominion 
 
THE BIBLE. 2gi 
 
 over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, 
 and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over 
 every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 
 
 " So The Elohim created man in His own image, in 
 the image of The Elohim created He him ; male and 
 female created He them. 
 
 " And The Elohim blessed them, and The Elohim 
 said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish 
 the earth, and subdue it ; and have dominion over the 
 fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over 
 every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 
 
 " And The Elohim said, Behold, I have given you 
 every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of 
 all the earth, and every tree in the which is the 
 fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall be for 
 meat. 
 
 " And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl 
 of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the 
 earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb 
 for meat : and it was so. 
 
 " And The Elohim saw every thing that He had made, 
 and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and 
 the morning were the sixth day." 
 
 Is it possible that this primitive account of the origin 
 of things can be in any sort of harmony with modern 
 scientific knowledge ? Can it be that primitive man, 
 without any of the advantages of modern education, 
 invented a theory of creation thousands of years ago 
 worthy of consideration by a modern scholar ? 
 
 According to the primitive teaching of the Bible, the 
 Divine Mind, or The Elohim, or the L.O.M., created the 
 
 U 2 
 
20,2 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 heavens and the earth " in the beginning." So far as 
 we can judge, science and imagination will strive in 
 vain to get beyond this in the contemplation of the 
 origin of matter. 
 
 The earth is described as " without form and void " ; 
 and there was darkness. The modern scholar may say 
 that all was in a state of primitive nebulosity or 
 homogeneous indefiniteness ; and some minds have a 
 feeling of satisfaction when using words of imposing 
 length and sound, even when they add nothing to the 
 significance of those which are simple. If no light was 
 in existence we cannot believe that there was force of 
 any kind, and therefore the matter must have been 
 diffused in its original atoms ; for no two atoms could 
 combine without the existence of light, or force that 
 would imply light. Whatever may be meant by the 
 heavens, we must take it that the primitive philosopher 
 intended to describe the earth as originally incoherent 
 and formless, and that is all the length that our most 
 advanced philosophers can go. 
 
 The next proceeding, according to the Bible, was the 
 creation of light ; which must be understood as imply- 
 ing the creation of all the physical forces, since modern 
 science proves that light is essential to the union of 
 atoms into visible matter, or into the molecules, with- 
 out which heat cannot be known. When the light 
 was created the atoms combined into masses capable of 
 producing shadows by intercepting the light. Hence it 
 is said in Genesis that on the First Day the light was 
 divided from the darkness. 
 
 In order to understand the Bible it is necessarv to 
 
THE BIBLE. 293 
 
 study it as a series of pictures which the primitive 
 philosopher may have painted to express his thoughts 
 before he had elaborated any language. First, we may 
 suppose there was the All-seeing Eye ; then there was 
 the gloomy mass, without form and void ; next there 
 may have been the appearance of rays from the Eye, 
 causing some irregularities upon the surface of the dark 
 mass, and translated as the Spirit moving upon the face 
 of the waters, or the sea of nebulosity ; then there may 
 have been the representation of a Hand moving dark- 
 ness to one side and light to the other, so as to indicate 
 a permanent division. Science has now reached the 
 stage of trying to penetrate this mystery, and to discover 
 how one body is made opaque and another transparent, 
 or to prove that there is no more difference between 
 light and darkness than between different species of 
 animals. 
 
 There is then a break in the series of pictures to 
 indicate that this was the First Day; but as we are 
 informed that the sun and moon were appointed after- 
 wards to regulate time, so that our day of twenty-four 
 hours could not have been instituted, the Day of 
 Creation must have meant an indefinite period. The 
 Day long enough to be recognised by the Infinite Mind 
 as time must have duration incomprehensible by a finite 
 mind. During this period the force was acting on the 
 matter so as to form the inorganic world. God does 
 not hurry. 
 
 Next we are shown the matter accumulated into 
 enormous masses so as to form the earth and the 
 heavenly bodies. We may suppose that the teacher 
 
294 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 painted a sky that appeared solid, and tried to show the 
 separation of the water in the sea from the invisible 
 water which descends as rain. How was the earth 
 dried and hardened to the proper consistency ? The 
 establishing of a proper balance between the moisture 
 on the earth and the amount in the air available as rain 
 seemed to the primitive philosopher such a marvellous 
 display of careful forethought that he describes it as 
 occupying the whole of the Second Day. 
 
 Is this less marvellous to modern science ? 
 
 How many internal fires and external floods were 
 needed to form the paste into solid mountains sur- 
 rounded by vast oceans ? If there was a molten mass 
 it had to cool ; and if it was at the temperature supposed 
 by geologists, there could be no possibility of water 
 remaining upon it. One might as well expect water to 
 lie upon the flame of a furnace. Where did the water 
 come from to fill the hollows? Where did the hydrogen 
 exist before it was burned ? Where was the oxygen ? 
 Is there an unknown store of water between the earth 
 and the sun ? The cooling of a volcanic mass is not 
 considered a probable source of water. 
 
 When the earth was cooled sufficiently to permit 
 moisture to lie upon it the work of forming dry land 
 began. Some parts were elevated and others depressed, 
 so that the water might be drained off into the hollows. 
 Then no time was lost in utilising the solid portion for 
 the support of life. Some of the inorganic material was 
 converted into organic form ; and millions of years may 
 have been employed by microscopic fungi in preparing 
 the earth for the growth of forest trees. The soil was 
 
THE BIBLE. 295 
 
 gradually enriched by the decomposition of low forms 
 of vegetable life ; and there is no mention of animal life, 
 which seems a mistake. Vegetable life must have come 
 first to support the animal, but how can it have needed 
 a whole Day to itself ? Perhaps the explanation of this 
 is the necessity of forming stores of coal and petroleum ; 
 but there were animals in existence when some of the 
 coal was formed. Some method must have been 
 adopted of allowing vegetable growth to accumulate 
 enormously, and the period occupied is described as the 
 Third Day. 
 
 It is quite contrary to the common modern notion of 
 the proper order of events to leave the formation of the 
 Solar System until the Fourth Day ; and yet the primi- 
 tive theory may be correct. We have learned to think 
 of the movements of the heavenly bodies as essential. 
 Revelations of the ancient distribution of life upon the 
 earth provide problems for the scientific theorist; for 
 its surface has been clothed with great forests in a 
 manner which could not have been possible if the 
 present arrangements of solar influence had been in 
 operation. Heat must have been diffused over the earth 
 in a manner which science does not yet explain. 
 Geologists inform us that there was once a great glacial 
 period for parts of the earth now seldom visited by 
 snow ; while it has also been proved that regions now 
 doomed to perpetual winter were at one time in the 
 enjoyment of tropical heat and luxuriant vegetation. 
 Does a little alteration of the earth's inclination to the 
 sun explain all ? Had the heavenly bodies not been 
 set spinning ? Had sufficient force not accumulated to 
 
20,6 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 maintain the various bodies in their revolutions and 
 rotations ? The present division of time into days, and 
 nights, and seasons, was made by setting all the won- 
 derful machinery in motion, and the force needed may 
 well have occupied a number of Days in accumulating. 
 It is possible that future philosophers may come to the 
 conclusion that the arrangement of the Solar System 
 was not completed until late in the order of creation, 
 and that the work was sufficient to occupy the Fourth 
 Day ; but, in any case, the profundity of the thought 
 remains. 
 
 The Fifth Day of Creation is said to have been spent 
 in producing everything that lives in the water and in 
 the air, while no land animals are mentioned ; and this 
 statement is remarkable from the zoological point of 
 view ; for it is only within the past few years that the 
 relation between birds and fishes has been recognised, 
 and before that relation was discovered no one would 
 have thought of associating birds with fishes as their 
 companions in creation. It may be that the primitive 
 teacher painted fishes and flying animals as the pro- 
 ducts of the Fifth Day ; and thus he would include, as 
 by intuition, the gigantic flying reptiles since found 
 along with fishes in the fossil records of the history of 
 the earth. 
 
 The Sixth Day was occupied in causing the force to 
 act on the matter so as to produce all forms of animal 
 life ; and after these had been produced man appears 
 upon the scene. In order to express the magnitude of 
 the work, and the enormous duration of each period, 
 Omnipotence is represented as weary. 
 
THE BIBLE. 297 
 
 The Divine Mind is said to have ceased from work 
 on the Seventh Day. This seems to mean that no 
 further new creations were produced, and that everything 
 was left free from manifest supernatural interference, 
 so that man might work with confidence to utilise all 
 the stores provided for his enjoyment. 
 
 We may suppose, if we please, that the atoms of 
 matter first formed were all of one kind, and that they 
 were all atoms of hydrogen. We may further suppose 
 that the light caused sixteen atoms of hydrogen to 
 unite in some peculiar manner to form an atom of 
 oxygen, and fourteen to combine to form an atom of 
 nitrogen, and one hundred and twenty-seven to com- 
 bine to form iodine, and so on. The rays of light may 
 have accumulated in the matter so as to cause the 
 molecular movements we recognise as heat, and the 
 incomprehensible influences we recognise as electricity, 
 and chemical action, and gravitation. Thus the for- 
 mation of the earth, according to the Bible, may have 
 been the result of the combinations of atoms of 
 hydrogen under the influence of light. Science seems 
 to show that the atmosphere of the sun is composed of 
 burning hydrogen. Such combustion would require 
 oxygen, and the result would be water, unless we 
 suppose some less likely form of chemical combination 
 to have taken place. 
 
 The account in the Bible will permit us to fancy that 
 the light caused the atoms to aggregate so as to form 
 nebulae ; and that the nebulae united to form comets ; 
 and that the nebulae and comets united to form planets. 
 The intensity of the light and heat given out by the 
 
20,8 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 bodies would be proportionate to their bulk, and the 
 velocity with which they rushed into collision. Com- 
 binations may have been brought about by violent 
 collisions and intense heat, which resulted in the pro- 
 duction of unstable compounds like chloride of nitrogen 
 in the centre of the heavenly bodies ; and the resulting 
 explosion may have sent the star or planet flying through 
 space in showers of meteors and meteoric dust, as the 
 earth may be blown up some day. 
 
 No theory can begin without assuming the existence 
 of matter and force. The Creator had to keep control 
 of all, so that the atom of oxygen should always consist 
 of sixteen atoms of hydrogen and no more so long as 
 the earth and man endure ; otherwise there would be 
 the possibility of change in its composition, and there 
 could be no science of chemistry. We may suppose 
 the existence of isomeric varieties of oxygen, and we 
 may regard sulphur as a polymeric form of oxygen, and 
 say that its atom is composed of thirty-two atoms of 
 hydrogen ; but however we may let our fancy wander, 
 we must believe that there was an original command 
 which fixed the composition of each element so that 
 it should always be the same under the same 
 conditions. 
 
 Philosophers even of modern times have been dis- 
 posed to regard the sun as the ultimate source of all 
 light and heat; but the primitive philosopher taught 
 that it was created after light, and is merely a special 
 means of storing force so as to allow the various 
 portions of the earth to receive supplies at regular 
 intervals, and thus to facilitate the carrying out of the 
 
THE BIBLE. 299 
 
 law of Nature that all labour must be followed by a 
 period of repose. The prodigality with which the sun 
 lavishes heat and light at all times and in all directions 
 is in keeping with the infinite abundance of all the 
 stores of Nature. 
 
 It is worth remarking that every day had its "evening 
 and morning " ; and this statement, so carefully repeated, 
 probably refers to the slow and gradual mode in which 
 Creation took place, and it is in wonderful contrast to 
 the thought that comes naturally to man that every- 
 thing must have been created instantaneously by a 
 sudden command. We should expect the morning of 
 a day to be mentioned before the evening; and as every 
 word in the Bible, and especially in this brief record, 
 must be carefully weighed, we must seek for the 
 profound thought that causes every day to begin with 
 an evening and end with the morning. There was no 
 evening, as generally understood, to any of the days of 
 Creation, for the day is taken as beginning when all 
 hope of life appears to reason without faith to have 
 died ; and this period is succeeded by night of utter 
 darkness, so far as human wisdom can discern, but it 
 is really the period of incubation to be followed by the 
 steadily-increasing light of morning when life comes 
 forth. None of the days of Creation were assisted by 
 special act of Omnipotence beyond their " morning," 
 since they were intended to develop into the full blaze 
 of noon, so as to furnish material for the observation 
 and for the instruction and enjoyment of man. 
 
 The cessation in the "morning" may be used as an 
 argument in favour of a modified evolution theory, 
 
300 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 involving only six distinct acts of supernatural power, 
 given as impulses to begin a long series of evolutional 
 processes ; but this interpretation would destroy the 
 harmony of ideas involved in supposing the work to be 
 so great and continuous that the Creative Mind required 
 to rest, and we know that the Creator did not rest for 
 any interval until all was finished, for science teaches 
 us that no break in the work is perceptible until every 
 species had been produced. 
 
 We may reasonably suppose that the conditions of 
 heat and moisture were at first particularly favourable 
 for the lowest forms of vegetable life to carry on 
 their work of decomposing inorganic compounds in 
 order to build up organic bodies, which, by decaying, 
 would form a soil suitable for the maintenance of higher 
 forms of vegetation ; and the delay in the production 
 of land animals may have had some connection with 
 the need of allowing vegetable life special facilities for 
 growth in order to store up force for the future use of man. 
 The elevation of the parts of the crust of the earth that 
 contained special accumulations of the fruits of the work 
 of vegetable and animal life may have been necessary 
 either for the development of special forms of animals, 
 or for the use and pleasure of man ; and when lagoons 
 and swamps became replaced by plains and mountains, 
 many species of animals that had served their purpose, 
 or that might have been injurious to the new species, 
 were allowed to become extinct. 
 
 The account of Creation given in Genesis is very 
 commonly misunderstood and misrepresented. Few 
 people study it seriously for themselves. With the 
 
THE BIBLE. 301 
 
 exception of the separate creation of man there is no 
 mention of original creation except of matter and force. 
 The Divine Mind is not said to have created plants or 
 animals, but to have commanded, "Let the earth bring 
 forth grass," etc. The force was to act upon the matter 
 so as to transform inorganic into organic material. 
 Thus it would appear that vital force is not essentially 
 different from the physical forces, but is a peculiar 
 combination of them ; and yet we must not forget that 
 Omnipotence had to give the impulse to begin the growth 
 of the first vegetable germ. It was just as easy for the 
 Creator to cause the production of a million varieties 
 of vegetable life as one ; but all had to be connected 
 as the harmonious design of the Perfect Architect, so 
 that man might not be bewildered when studying them. 
 
 Vegetable life did not pass into animal life by natural 
 generation, though there is no essential difference 
 between them. The lowest forms of plant life may 
 have required ages to make the earth fit to produce 
 higher forms ; but millions of ages were of no conse- 
 quence to the Infinite Creator. As soon as the 
 necessary food was prepared, the Divine Mind said, 
 " Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving 
 creature," etc. Thus the first animal life was in the 
 water, according to the Bible ; and ages may have 
 elapsed before the earth was dry enough for the 
 production of animals capable of living entirely upon 
 land. 
 
 There is permanent distinction between species 
 according to the Bible. We are told that the earth 
 brought forth grass and herb, yielding seed after its 
 
302 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 kind ; and that the " Elohim made the beast of the 
 earth after its kind, and cattle after their kind." The 
 frequent repetition of the words " after their kind," 
 signifies that a fresh command was given every time 
 the development of the earth warranted the production 
 of a new species. Evolutionists say that it is difficult 
 to believe that the Creator interfered for the produc- 
 tion of each species ; and then they encounter the far 
 greater difficulty of attempting to believe that a particle 
 of vegetable matter went on steadily advancing from 
 one stage of evolution to another until it ended in the 
 production of man. The demands on credulity do not 
 even stop here, for we must suppose that the little 
 vegetable had a steady desire to develop into something 
 higher, which is more than most men have. The 
 miracles of the Bible are simple natural results when 
 compared with the utterly confounding miracle . of 
 evolution without supernatural interference. The vege- 
 table germ would deserve our homage as the Almighty. 
 Why should the Creator have stopped at the production 
 of fungus, or atoms ? 
 
 All animals are said to have been produced by the 
 earth in obedience to the command of the Creator. 
 " And the Elohim said, Let the earth bring forth the 
 living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, 
 and beast of the earth after its kind : and it was so." 
 The creeping things here mentioned may have been 
 small land animals, or some reptile forms late in 
 appearance, and distinct from those shown in the 
 picture of fishes, flying things, and birds. 
 
 The earth did not bring forth man. There was 
 
THE BIBLE. 303 
 
 special creation needed, though he was formed of 
 the dust of the earth, and is in substance and in 
 structure one with the brutes. There is a gulf be- 
 tween man and animals such as does not exist between 
 different species of animals, or even between animals 
 and plants. " The Elohim created man in His Own 
 Image : in the Image of The Elohim created He him ; 
 male and female created He them." 
 
 If we are very anxious to keep as far as possible 
 from thinking clearly of the Divine Mind, we may 
 say that man was made of the dust by majestic laws 
 acting over vast epochs until he had become fit for the 
 inbreathing of a higher nature. That must mean that 
 there were once men who were not men, but only 
 animals, incapable of spiritual consciousness. Such 
 is not the teaching of the Bible, nor the teaching of 
 reason or of history. 
 
 If men had preserved and studied with reverence the 
 brief philosophy of the primitive teacher there would 
 never have been idolatry, or superstition, or general 
 degradation ; but the foolish son neglects the counsel 
 of his father, and makes experiments for himself with- 
 out the guidance of previous experimenters. A fluent 
 chatterer who has never stood alone will condemn with 
 confidence the most profound doctrines of ancient sages. 
 In the very first chapter of Genesis the complete subjec- 
 tion of animals, and plants, and all material things, to 
 the Creator, is plainly and emphatically affirmed ; yet 
 after thousands of years we find intelligent men looking 
 on the new moon as a possible governor of riches, and 
 standing in awe of charlatans who pretend to see in the 
 
304 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 stars the power of dominating human destiny. Whole 
 nations have invested with mysterious sanctity some 
 mountain, or river, or grove, or tree ; elephants, and cows, 
 and apes, and even crocodiles have been treated with 
 reverential awe ; and human beings have been sacrificed 
 to appease the demon of some particular locality sup- 
 posed to be able to blight or bless. Those who have 
 floundered in the mud of Greek and Indian mythology 
 until ready to cling to any dogma of materialism or 
 animalism may well exclaim with Caliban when their 
 eyes are opened to the spiritual truth and beauty of the 
 primitive wisdom in Genesis : 
 
 " I'll be wise hereafter, 
 And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass 
 Was I to take this drunkard for a god, 
 And worship this dull fool ! " 
 
 According to the most ancient theology, the Creator 
 was well pleased with all His works, and declared all 
 to be very good. Man was His child, made in His 
 Image, provided for with parental care and affection, 
 and even given all things for his use and enjoyment, 
 but with the distinct understanding that if he ate stones 
 for bread he would suffer indigestion, in spite of all 
 repentance and prayers. The primitive teaching was 
 that " God is good, and His mercy endureth for ever " ; 
 and the primitive man heard the angels singing, " Glory 
 to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill 
 towards men." 
 
 What was the consequence of neglect to study the 
 first three chapters of Genesis as guide ? Those 
 
THE BIBLE. 305 
 
 without the primitive wisdom could not help recog- 
 nising the Creator as Infinite Power, manifested by 
 earthquake, and storm, and pestilence, as well as by 
 sunshine, and shower, and harvest ; Power apparently 
 delighting in suffering and destruction ; and therefore 
 appropriately symbolised by the car of Juggernaut 
 demanding human victims. Without the primitive 
 guidance men worship demons of cruelty that must be 
 propitiated by self-torture and self-destruction ; or 
 they wander hopelessly among bewildering forces and 
 imaginary influences, so that they may even become 
 so degraded as to dread a number, whether seven, or 
 nine, or thirteen. The modern rationalist, with all his 
 advantages of education, only knows Nature as " red 
 in tooth and claw," and knows nothing of Jehovah con- 
 versing with Man in the Garden. The Infinite Mind 
 remains to scientific research the Unknowable, because 
 the Formal Cause can only be known by those who 
 cultivate the Garden of the soul. 
 
 Every part of the Bible was written to teach spiritual 
 truth, but not to prevent the exercise of intellect. 
 Without it man must feel a helpless orphan wander- 
 ing upon the earth in search of One able to guide him 
 to the Heaven-Father. Those who quite lost the 
 original teaching became at once the slaves of unseen 
 and unknowable powers, liable to be terror-stricken by 
 every novel sight or sound, as we have abundant 
 evidence of even in the present day. Progress and 
 happiness would never have been possible if the wise 
 primitive man had not known the confidence and 
 security arising from knowledge of the Creator. The 
 
 o.m. x 
 
306 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Spirit witnessed with his spirit that he was the child 
 of God. 
 
 The materialist sees the earth as the mother of all 
 life, and, therefore, as a natural object of reverence ; 
 but the primitive teacher pointed up to the Heaven- 
 Father. What could the intellectual human animal find 
 more worthy of adoration than light ? Adam taught 
 that light had to come into existence and disappear 
 at the bidding of the Divine Mind. Nothing is con- 
 ceived by the materialist as superior to the sun, moon, 
 and stars, and the expanse of the heavens ; but Adam 
 taught that they are mere storehouses made by the 
 Creator to regulate the supply of light and heat. 
 
 All elementary teaching must be based upon the 
 phenomena which Nature presents to the senses before 
 any artificial methods of study have been brought into 
 use. We must speak to a child of the rising and setting 
 of the sun, though we may believe that the sun is 
 stationary while the earth moves. The primitive teacher 
 may have believed that the sun moves round the earth, 
 or that the earth is flat, and that the sun is moved by 
 the direct interposition of the Creator. He may have 
 thought that there is a solid transparent material mid- 
 way between the earth and the sun, or that there is a 
 vast expanse of frozen moisture that needs to be re- 
 strained from thawing and flooding the earth, or that 
 there is a subtle substance which modern science de- 
 scribes as ether. Such beliefs or opinions would not 
 affect his ability to give an infallible revelation of the 
 fundamental truths regarding religion and morality if 
 he had a perfect mind. He had the wisdom to avoid 
 
THE BIBLE. 307 
 
 giving any opinion on subjects he did not understand, 
 and to confine his teaching to the fruits of intuitional 
 perception and spiritual experience. 
 
 The second chapter of Genesis is supposed by some 
 critics to be inconsistent with the first, whereas it ought 
 to be regarded as a separate series of pictures dealing 
 with man as a spirit inhabiting a mind. It is as 
 follows : 
 
 " Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and 
 all the host of them. 
 
 " And on the seventh day The Elohim finished His 
 work which He had made ; and He rested on the 
 seventh day from all His work which He had made. 
 
 " And The Elohim blessed the seventh day and 
 hallowed it : because that in it He had rested from 
 all His work which The Elohim had created and 
 made. 
 
 " These are the generations of the heavens and of 
 the earth when they were created, in the day that 
 Jehovah, The Elohim, made the earth and the 
 heaven. 
 
 " And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and 
 no herb of the field had yet sprung up ; for Jehovah, 
 The Elohim, had not caused it to rain upon the earth, 
 and there was not a man to till the ground ; 
 
 " But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered 
 the whole face of the ground. 
 
 " And Jehovah, The Elohim, formed man of the dust 
 of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath 
 of life ; and man became a living soul. 
 
 " And Jehovah, The Elohim, planted a garden east- 
 
 x 2 
 
308 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 ward, in Eden ; and there He put the man whom He 
 had formed. 
 
 " And out of the ground made Jehovah, The Elohim, 
 to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and 
 good for food ; the tree of life also in the midst of 
 the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good 
 and evil. 
 
 " And a river went out of Eden to water the garden ; 
 and from thence it was parted, and became four heads. 
 
 " The name of the first is Pison : that is it which 
 compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there 
 is gold; 
 
 " And the gold of that land is good : there is bdellium 
 and the onyx stone. 
 
 " And the name of the second river is Gihon : the 
 same is that which compasseth the whole land of Cush. 
 
 " And the name of the third river is Hiddekel : that 
 is it which goeth towards the east of Assyria. And the 
 fourth river is Euphrates. 
 
 " And Jehovah, The Elohim, took the man, and 
 put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and to 
 keep it. 
 
 "And Jehovah, The Elohim, commanded the man, 
 saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest 
 freely eat: 
 
 " But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 
 thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day that thou eatest 
 thereof thou shalt surely die. 
 
 " And Jehovah, The Elohim, said, It is not good that 
 the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet 
 for him. 
 
THE BIBLE. 309 
 
 " And out of the ground Jehovah, The Elohim, formed 
 every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air ; and 
 brought them unto the man to see what he would call 
 them : and whatsoever the man called every living 
 creature, that was the name thereof. 
 
 " And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the 
 fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field ; but 
 for the man there was not found an help meet for him. 
 
 " And Jehovah, The Elohim, caused a deep sleep to 
 fall upon the man, and he slept : and He took one of his 
 ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. 
 
 " And the rib which Jehovah, The Elohim, had taken 
 from the man, builded He into a woman, and brought 
 her unto the man. 
 
 " And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, 
 and flesh of my flesh : she shall be called Woman, 
 because she was taken out of Man. 
 
 "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, 
 and shall cleave unto his wife ; and they shall be one 
 flesh. 
 
 " And they were both naked, the man and his wife, 
 and were not ashamed." 
 
 Many of the critics of the Biblical account of creation 
 forget that language was in its infancy a few thousand 
 years ago, and that profound thoughts and moral 
 precepts had to be taught by symbol and allegory. 
 He who uses a word already made has seldom the clear 
 mental vision of the idea implied which the inventor of 
 the word had. " Intellect " is a word now in common 
 use by multitudes who do not appreciate its derivation 
 or meaning ; but the inventor of it had to see the 
 
310 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 faculty of the mind selecting concepts and weaving 
 them into harmoniously connected texture of thought in 
 reasoning, so that a picture of a weaver might have 
 been used by him to signify intellect. Before the word 
 " intricate " was invented the idea may have been 
 expressed by a picture of an animal in a net, or of 
 a man in a maze. The root idea needs to be studied. 
 
 There are important differences between the first 
 chapter of Genesis and the second. In the first the 
 Creator is regarded simply as the Originator of all 
 things, and is described as The Elohim, or the Divine 
 Mind. In the second and third chapters He is regarded 
 in His relation to man, as the Friend, the Helper, the 
 Moral Governor, the Saviour, the Judge ; and hence 
 is described as Jehovah, The Elohim, which is translated 
 as the Lord God. 
 
 The first chapter deals with the origin of the universe, 
 and teaches man his relation to the material world, to 
 light and darkness, to land and water, to sun and moon, 
 to plants and animals, and the supremacy of God over 
 all. There is no other such original teaching with 
 regard to these fundamental questions ; and no one 
 who accepts the teaching can possibly be an idolater. 
 Have the sages of Rome, or Greece, or India, or China, 
 produced any such account of creation, and of the 
 relation of man to God, even with the aid of the 
 accumulated teaching of thousands of years ? Why 
 not ? The primitive teacher, the prince of all philo- 
 sophers, saw truth in the clear light of spiritual vision 
 before the learning of artificial words had produced 
 confusion of thought, and before moral corruption had 
 
THE BIBLE. 311 
 
 made him degenerate, so that he ceased to seek wisdom 
 by solitary communing with the Creator. 
 
 The second chapter of Genesis proclaims the nature 
 of man. The animal man, one in substance, and to a 
 great extent one in structure, with the brutes, has a 
 spirit breathed into him, and is made in the Image of 
 his Creator. He is an elohim, or mind ; and he walks 
 erect, with his face towards heaven. 
 
 The second chapter finds the ground barren, though 
 the first chapter left it clothed with verdure. In the 
 first there is the material ; in the second the material is 
 the symbol. The man had not awoke to spiritual con- 
 sciousness ; and the earth was a blank, without meaning 
 or use, until recognised by man as the revelation of the 
 Creator. We cannot form a notion of an island created 
 to remain for ever without any intelligent being to take 
 interest in it. To represent the mind in a state of 
 unawakened energies, when no passion had been aroused, 
 and no definite responsibility recognised, a picture of 
 the ground may have been painted without any living 
 thing, or any product of life, upon it. No products of 
 the human mind had any existence until responsibility 
 was voluntarily assumed. There was not a man to till 
 the ground, or a human spirit at active work. If 
 nothing had been shown in the painting but the barren 
 ground it might have signified a state of death, or the 
 entire absence of all mental life, which would not have 
 been a correct description of the mind at first. The 
 vapour rising from the ground indicated the existence 
 of potential thought and mental products as dormant 
 in the mere animal man ; but since they had not taken 
 
312 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 definite form, there could only be an indefinite mist. 
 There never had been prayer for assistance or blessing, 
 since there never had been consciousness of need ; and 
 hence it is said that no rain had been sent down from 
 heaven. 
 
 The mist is described as ascending, and as preparing 
 the earth by watering it, not only before any plant or 
 herb had sprung up, but even before man had been 
 created out of the dust of the ground. The whole 
 animal creation was in existence, manifesting the degree 
 of intelligence bestowed upon it, and so there was a 
 mist; but the most highly endowed animal cannot 
 produce any thought ascending towards heaven, or any 
 aspiration worthy of representation by the* symbol of 
 the tiniest herb. 
 
 How the man was produced out of the dust is the 
 problem that perplexes the materialist who believes in 
 the production of species by a natural law of evolution. 
 There is no natural law that would ever transform a 
 sheep into any other animal ; though natural law will 
 make it vary in size, and in other respects, with change 
 of environment. Each species has been created to 
 remain permanent according to its formal cause so long 
 as mankind needs it. 
 
 The Creator could have made an infinite number of 
 animal forms more and more closely resembling man, 
 and then could have modified a germ so as to produce 
 a perfect human animal. That would not have been 
 evolution by natural law, but a miracle confounding 
 natural laws by producing man with perfect mind from 
 animals without speech. However it was done we 
 
THE BIBLE. 313 
 
 have the fact that the primitive thinker was made 
 capable of giving a more profound account of the nature 
 of man than any modern philosopher could invent for 
 himself, and was thus superior mentally and morally to 
 any man now existing. 
 
 The products of the spiritual nature were represented 
 by the primitive teacher as vapour that has a tendency 
 to ascend towards heaven like incense, and spiritual 
 blessings were painted as the rain which descends from 
 heaven ; while the products of the mind, acting in 
 obedience to the spirit after the assumption of re- 
 sponsibility, were painted as trees and plants. The 
 mind is the Garden in which the spirit exists ; and the 
 spirit has the consciousness of the possession of mind. 
 
 When man was in harmony with the Divine Mind, 
 every Tree that was pleasant to the sight or good for 
 food grew out of the Ground ; by which it was signified 
 that every intellectual accomplishment, and every 
 emotional enjoyment that can produce unalloyed happi- 
 ness, are possessed by the man who acts in harmony 
 with the Will of the Divine Mind. The " Tree of Life" 
 was then in the midst of the Garden, since perfect 
 happiness and satisfaction was a central abiding pos- 
 session of the consciousness ; and yet the " Tree of the 
 knowledge of good and evil " was also present in the 
 Garden of the mind, since man knew the good from 
 the evil, and exercised his will in choosing the good, 
 and in refraining from the evil ; so that perfect happiness 
 existed along with free will. 
 
 The Creator bestowed on man the spirit of activity, 
 which prompts him to find enjoyment in the gratifica- 
 
314 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 tion of his intellect and emotions, and to satisfy his 
 curiosity even in opposition to what he knows to be the 
 command of The Elohim. The Man was to till the 
 Garden ; and this picture condemned in anticipation 
 the heresy of men like Buddha, who regard the activity 
 of the emotions and the will as an evil to be got rid of, 
 instead of as a gift for which to be thankful. 
 
 When man had thus become active in the perform- 
 ance of works according to his own judgment and 
 desire, the painter taught that he still continued in 
 perfect happiness so long as his conduct was regulated 
 according to the dictates of his conscience ; and to 
 describe this he made a painting representing man as 
 placed in a garden " planted eastward" in Eden. The 
 spirit, or ego, or consciousness, or whatever we may 
 term the individual possessor of conscious existence, 
 was pictured as a man looking towards the light in a 
 garden situated so that the rising sun was shining on it; 
 and therefore Moses, or whoever interpreted the pictures, 
 described it as "planted eastward," and the condition 
 of consciousness was expressed in the word " Eden," 
 which means "delight" or "bliss." So long as the 
 Sun of Righteousness is shining on the Garden of the 
 mind of man, the " ego " placed within the mind is in a 
 state of perfect happiness. 
 
 The sense of happiness is increased by the cultivation 
 of the mind ; and the Creator intended man to enjoy 
 the fullest delight that can be produced by the satisfac- 
 tion and highest development of all his faculties. 
 Reward is in proportion to the use made of the talents ; 
 and he who tries to preserve his talent treasured up 
 
THE BIBLE. 315 
 
 will always find that it becomes corrupt, and leads to 
 his ruin. 
 
 The spirit, ego, or Man, depends upon the fertility 
 of the mind for all consciousness of happiness. How 
 could the teacher without words express this idea? 
 The life of the mind was represented as a River ; for its 
 fertility, and even its existence as a Garden, depends 
 upon the fertilising streams produced by its own activity. 
 No man finds happiness by the works of others. 
 
 How could the primitive teacher give an analysis of 
 the mind ? How could he refer to such abstract things 
 as memory, and intellect, and emotion, and will ? 
 Artificial signs and sounds had not been invented 
 capable of conveying to others any notion of abstract 
 ideas. The phenomena of mind were necessarily 
 expressed in metaphors. 
 
 Modern psychologists make the mistake of attempting 
 to study the human mind without knowing the Divine 
 Mind. The great teachers of the past knew that all 
 wisdom existed first in the Creative Mind ; and, how- 
 ever marvellous it may seem to the modern teachers 
 who regard themselves as vastly improved by evolution, 
 primitive men knew what they meant by The Elohim, 
 and ancient theologians enjoyed clear consciousness of 
 the existence of God as a Trinity of persons. In pro- 
 portion as man gains knowledge of the Divine Mind he 
 gains knowledge of the human mind, since man possesses 
 the attributes of his Heaven-Father. 
 
 An unlettered man can easily think of the Creator as 
 Governor, Judge, or Father, and may even have an 
 advantage over the scholar in facility of conceiving the 
 
3l6 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Ideal Man as Son of the Creator. Primitive man, com- 
 pelled to think in pictures, could see in his own mind 
 the ideas of the square, and the circle, and the sphere ; 
 and knew instinctively that the archetypal ideas of 
 them must have existed in the Creative Mind. He saw 
 the spiritual as the real, and the material as the expres- 
 sion of ideas. By the light of conscience the Ideal Man 
 was seen just as certainly as the idea of a square ; and 
 there could be no more tendency to fancy the evolution 
 of man than the evolution of a square. 
 
 The River, which is the life in the centre of the mind, 
 was painted as dividing into " Four Heads," and not 
 merely as giving off four branches. A branch of a river 
 implies the previous existence of a more complete river, 
 which is independent of the branch and superior to it ; 
 but no element of the mind can exist previous to the 
 other elements, and therefore the River was painted as 
 rising at once in Four Heads. 
 
 The First River of the mind was painted as encircling 
 all the Land where there is Gold and Precious Stones ; 
 and those who imagine that the account in Genesis 
 refers to physical rivers, forget that no river would be 
 likely to flow round any place in a circle without branch- 
 ing, and also forget that no river ever known rises in 
 four heads to go different ways. The Gold and Precious 
 Stones meant all the knowledge that is valuable to man; 
 and the River which encircles all knowledge, and is the 
 essential support of its fertility and existence, is the 
 Memory. The simplest exercise of the intellect is 
 impossible without memory ; the mother cannot have 
 the slightest love for her child without memory ; 
 
THE BIBLE. 317 
 
 and the will cannot be exercised in performing a 
 moment's work without memory. Memory can accom- 
 plish nothing of itself, and therefore the painter repre- 
 sented it as a circle to produce fertility, but flowing 
 nowhere. 
 
 The Second River was also described as a circle, and 
 it enclosed the whole land of Ethiopia, or the land 
 which is always warmed by the sun, and is symbolical 
 of the emotional element of mind ; for love has in all 
 ages been spoken of as a flame or as something warm. 
 Hence the Second River painted is the Intellect, which 
 is the parent of Emotion, and therefore shown as encir- 
 cling it ; and which is shown as flowing in a circle, 
 because intellect, like memory, can of itself produce no 
 evidence of its existence. In order that we may know 
 the existence and the ability of an intellect, we must 
 have some display of emotion and of will. 
 
 The Third River differs from the two previous ones 
 in not forming a circle, and it was painted as flowing 
 towards the East, and as bounding part of Assyria. 
 This river was Emotion, as revealed in the active mind; 
 and it was represented as flowing towards the east, or 
 towards the sun, in order to convey the idea of warmth, 
 and the longing for fellowship with The Elohim. Since 
 the painting was that of the mind of a perfect man, or 
 of one in harmony with The Elohim, the only emotion 
 that was represented was love ; for love in the perfect 
 mind is the dominant emotion. In the present day the 
 description would not apply to a very great multitude, 
 since the steady flow towards the East, or the natural 
 longing for the sympathy of the Creator, has been lost, 
 
318 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 and the emotion is very apt to flow away from the light 
 and warmth of heaven. 
 
 There was no termination to the Third River, since 
 emotion is ever seeking new objects on which to exer- 
 cise itself, and love is intensified by exercise and is 
 always flowing into action. The symbol which was 
 used to represent that which is noble in action was 
 afterwards adopted as the emblematic symbol of the 
 founder of the Assyrian empire ; and it was probably a 
 lion with eagle's wings, for that is the symbol which 
 Daniel gives for Assyria, and his language as a true 
 prophet must have corresponded with that of Hebrew 
 hieroglyphics in order to be accepted as part of the 
 Sacred Writings. The Third River bounded or influenced 
 only a part of Assyria, and that was the part towards 
 the East ; for action is only partly under the influence 
 of emotion in the perfect mind, and is for the greatest 
 part under the dominion of intellect. Only healthy 
 emotion is in harmony with The Elohim, or the 
 Divine Mind. 
 
 The Fourth River did not form a circle, nor flow in 
 any special direction, nor bound any particular country, 
 and it is simply said to be the " Euphrates." The 
 Euphrates was the largest river with which the primi- 
 tive teacher had any acquaintance, and he saw in it the 
 source of fertility and blessing. In prophetic language 
 the " drying up of the river " meant the decay of 
 strength and the diminution of resources, while the 
 continuous and abundant flow was emblematic of pros- 
 perity and power. Hence the Fourth River is the Will, 
 which cannot be confined within any circular limit, or 
 
THE BIBLE. 
 
 319 
 
 by the boundary of any particular collection of thoughts 
 and desires, but bursts all bounds by which it may be 
 temporarily fettered, and seeks the open ocean of 
 perfect freedom. It was the Euphrates that fertilised 
 the land, and it is only by the exercise of the will that 
 the mind can be fertilised ; for memory cannot be 
 cultivated and improved unless by efforts of the will to 
 recall events stored up ; the intellect can never be 
 developed to perfection unless the will determines that 
 a steady course of study shall be followed ; and love 
 itself becomes shrunken and diseased unless exercised 
 by the will upon suitable objects. It is only by the 
 exercise of the will in harmony with the Archetypal 
 Will that the Eden of perfect happiness can be acquired 
 or retained. 
 
 The painter thus represented the human mind as 
 composed of Intellect, Emotion, and Will, with Memory 
 encircling them and forming the essential condition of 
 their fertility and their life ; and to him the memory 
 bore the same relation to intellect, emotion, and will, 
 as the blood bears to the brain, and nerves, and 
 muscles. The blood is the essential vitalising fluid, 
 without which the brain cannot do intellectual work, 
 nor the nerves indicate emotions, nor the muscles obey 
 the will in producing movement ; the brain is the 
 parent of the nerves, as the intellect is the parent of 
 emotion ; and the action of the muscles in performing 
 work is partly governed by the brain acting through the 
 nerves, and partly by the nerves acting independently 
 of the brain, as the will is partly governed by the 
 intellect, and partly by the emotion, while the exercise 
 
320 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 of the muscles is the essential condition which must be 
 obeyed in order to have healthy blood, or brain, or 
 nerves. 
 
 Primitive man had not learned anatomy and physi- 
 ology so as to see this revelation of the Trinity ; but 
 he knew the Trinity of Mind with an absolute certainty, 
 which is independent of confirmation by physical 
 science. It is only the spiritually degenerate who need 
 the Incarnation. Patriarchs and prophets saw the 
 Christ by spiritual vision. 
 
 One of the greatest errors of religious teachers is 
 that which permits men to believe in the possibility 
 of passive happiness or spiritual health. It may 
 seem an indication of the highest spiritual life to 
 sing : 
 
 " Oh to be over yonder, 
 In that bright land of wonder, 
 Where the angel voices mingle, and the angel harps do ring ! 
 To be free from care and sorrow, 
 And the anxious dread to-morrow, 
 To rest in light and sunshine in the presence of the King ! " 
 
 The sentiment is really unhealthy, or is evidence of 
 weakness, and is that of a person who reclines languidly 
 on a couch for fear of exhausting the strength, when 
 the true way to preserve and to increase the strength is 
 by working all the muscles up to their fullest capacity. 
 Neither the intellect nor the emotion can be healthy 
 unless the will is regularly exercised up to its highest 
 capacity in performing works in harmony with the 
 Archetypal Will. 
 
 The symbolical pictures may have taught this truth 
 
THE BIBLE. 321 
 
 by a Blazing Star placed in contrast with a cold spot 
 of dead light ; and since the Blazing Star indicated a 
 living active mind, it was especially appropriate to 
 symbolise the Emotional Archetype the Life of the 
 World. Moses taught that God demands action in His 
 servants when he described God as speaking out of a 
 bush that burned without being consumed. It is false 
 and pernicious doctrine to say that any man is a 
 Christian because he gratifies himself by going to 
 church, and repeating prayers, and listening to sermons, 
 and attending sacraments. Unless a man displays by 
 his work that his Will is in harmony with the Will of 
 the Christ, he is not a Christian. 
 
 Jehovah, the Infinite Mind, commanded Adam to eat 
 freely of every tree in the Garden, except that which 
 the inward monitions of conscience taught him to 
 regard as a source of shame and evil. Those who try 
 to discover the origin and nature of man for themselves, 
 without the guidance of the primitive teacher, become 
 the victims of every delusive gleam of light that flickers 
 over the jungle of disordered fancies in which they 
 seek a path of deliverance from ignorance and error. 
 Some think it sinful to be merry ; some dread to appear 
 in rich apparel ; some fancy they deserve special praise 
 for living in a cave, or appearing extremely wretched. 
 Some even fancy the Creator will be pleased to see 
 them as silent, isolated beings, partaking of none of the 
 pleasures of life, and even torturing or mutilating them- 
 selves. Some refuse to eat pork ; others would forbid 
 the eating of any kind of flesh ; some denounce the use 
 of alcohol, while others lament the ruin produced by 
 
 O.M. Y 
 
322 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 slavery to tea. Tobacco and opium have been regarded 
 as equal in importance to the Tree of Life by teachers 
 who forget that truth and love do not vary with food 
 and drink. " Not that which entereth into the mouth 
 defileth a man ; but that which proceedeth out of the 
 mouth, this defileth the man." 
 
 The seer of the Apocalypse proclaimed that the Leaves 
 of the Tree of Life are for the healing of the nations. 
 The thoughts, emotions, and actions which are pro- 
 duced by the pure mind have the attainment of harmony 
 with the Divine Mind as the central object, and are 
 sources of happiness and delight, tending to banish all 
 the wickedness and cruelty from which the nations 
 suffer. The only hope for humanity is in the minds 
 working in obedience to The Elohim ; for they have 
 the consciousness of the possession of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven in the centre of the Garden of the Soul. 
 
 It is very important to note the order of the primitive 
 narrative. After the description of man as Man, the 
 possessor of conscience and responsibility, it is said that 
 a helpmeet for him must be provided ; but, instead of 
 at once creating the woman, we find the Creator 
 depicted as causing all animals to pass in review before 
 Adam with the object of ascertaining his opinion of 
 them. The solitary man may find much pleasure in 
 making pets of animals, such as apes, and dogs, and 
 cats, and parrots ; but life becomes insupportable with- 
 out the possibility of communion with a kindred spirit, 
 and no animal meets the spiritual eye of man with 
 responsive glance. All the animals are named by Adam 
 as animals, and are recognised for what they are worth ; 
 
THE BIBLE. 323 
 
 while the result of the scrutiny of the whole animal 
 world is announced in the words, "but for the Man, 
 there was not found an help meet for him." The 
 normal man cannot find any kinship between himself 
 and the beasts of the field. Only the degenerated 
 product of artificial parasitical conditions could dream 
 of natural descent from animals as possible. Man is a 
 spirit ; and marriage is the primary sacrament of 
 humanity instituted by Jehovah. 
 
 The manner in which the production of Eve is 
 depicted has been the subject of much criticism, and 
 materialists have carefully counted the ribs of a man to 
 learn whether one has been abstracted ; and, as the 
 number of ribs on each side is the same, they have 
 proved to their satisfaction that primitive man was 
 ignorant of anatomy, and his narrative of creation a 
 concoction of fancy. There is much controversy in the 
 present day regarding the relation of the sexes ; and a 
 little consideration of the teaching of primitive man 
 may be instructive. Those who try to understand the 
 meaning of the picture of the production of Eve from 
 the side of Adam by actual removal of a portion of his 
 body have no difficulty in perceiving that it signifies 
 that the man and his wife are one flesh ; so that unkind 
 treatment of her is irrational. All Hebrews recognised 
 that she was not taken out of his head to lord over 
 him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him ; 
 but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm 
 to be protected by him, and near his heart to be beloved 
 by him. 
 
 In the mysterious cycle of existence man is the son 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 of woman, and in helpless infancy is dependent upon 
 her ; while in adult life he is enslaved by her charms, 
 and sacrifices even Paradise itself to associate with her. 
 Hence it is not surprising that some modern women 
 are disposed to believe that they have the ability to be 
 originators. The primitive philosopher taught that 
 man is naturally the first and the superior ; and every 
 woman who has reared a manly son gladly proclaims 
 her inferiority to her husband. It is her part to cherish, 
 elaborate, and embellish what is given her by man ; 
 and the woman is to be pitied who is unable to appreciate 
 the thought of Tennyson in the words : 
 
 " And what delights can equal those 
 That stir the spirit's inner deeps 
 When one that loves, but knows not, reaps 
 A truth from one that loves and knows ? " 
 
 The primitive thinker taught that man and woman 
 can enjoy the perfect bliss of Eden so long as they are 
 innocent, and cultivate the Garden of the Soul together; 
 yet, when this original teaching was forgotten, the 
 greatest philosophers studied human nature for thou- 
 sands of years without discovering it again for themselves, 
 though they had the enormous advantage of accumu- 
 lated experience and scholarship, and though evolutionists 
 suppose the primitive man was inferior in intellect as 
 well as in moral sense. In India and China we still 
 find man seeking the satisfaction of his soul apart from 
 the society of woman ; and in professedly Christian 
 countries an unmarried man is often regarded as 
 somehow superior in sanctity to one who is married. 
 
The bible. 325 
 
 The Jews maintain the ancient doctrine of the Hebrew 
 in this matter, and say that no man is fit to occupy the 
 highest position in the religious assembly, or is not a 
 fully developed man, until he is married ; some even 
 going so far as to assert that a life of celibacy is a life 
 of sin. God created man male and female, so that 
 neither can fulfil the functions of life completely without 
 the other. 
 
 " As unto the bow the cord is, 
 So unto the man is woman, 
 Though she bends him she obeys him, 
 Though she draws him yet she follows 
 Useless each without the other." 
 
326 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 the bible (continued). 
 
 The second chapter leaves man and woman in a state 
 of perfect innocence ; and, consequently, not ashamed, 
 though naked. It is said that some modern women 
 pretend to blush when the leg of a table is mentioned 
 in the presence of men ; and the only disease that is 
 truly hereditary must not be mentioned in popular 
 books. Darwinians may see in this evidence of the 
 evolution of moral sense, and of a moral standard ; 
 while others may regard it as evidence of moral decay 
 and rottenness. 
 
 In the third chapter of Genesis we have a display of 
 further insight into the nature of man, and an attempt 
 to deal with such profound problems as the authority 
 of conscience, the origin of evil, the sense of responsi- 
 bility, the relation of the sexes, and the results of sin. 
 How could a man without the use of words teach the 
 essential truth regarding such questions ? 
 
 The third chapter is as follows : 
 
 " Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast 
 of the field which Jehovah, The Elohim, had made. 
 And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath The Elohim 
 said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden ? 
 
 " And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat 
 of the fruit of the trees of the garden : 
 
THE BIBLE. 327 
 
 " But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst 
 of the garden, The Elohim hath said, Ye shall not eat 
 of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 
 
 " And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not 
 surely die : 
 
 " For The Elohim doth know that in the day ye eat 
 thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be 
 as elohim, knowing good and evil. 
 
 " And when the woman saw that the tree was good 
 for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and a 
 tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the 
 fruit thereof, and did eat ; and gave also to her husband 
 with her, and he did eat. 
 
 " And the eyes of them both were opened, and they 
 knew that they were naked ; and they sewed fig leaves 
 together, and made themselves aprons. 
 
 " And they heard the voice of Jehovah, The Elohim, 
 walking in the garden in the cool of the day ; and the 
 man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of 
 Jehovah, The Elohim, amongst the trees of the garden. 
 
 11 And Jehovah, The Elohim, called unto Adam, and 
 said unto him, Where art thou ? 
 
 " And he said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, 
 and I was afraid, because I was naked ; and I hid 
 myself. 
 
 " And He said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? 
 Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee 
 that thou shouldest not eat ? 
 
 " And the man said, The woman whom Thou gavest 
 to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 
 
 " And Jehovah, The Elohim, said unto the woman, 
 
328 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 What is this that thou hast done ? And the woman 
 said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 
 
 " And Jehovah, The Elohim, said unto the serpent, 
 Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all 
 cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy 
 belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days 
 of thy life : 
 
 " And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, 
 and between thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy 
 head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 
 
 " Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply 
 thy sorrow and thy conception ; in sorrow thou shalt 
 bring forth children ; and thy desire shall be to thy 
 husband, and he shall rule over thee. 
 
 " And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast 
 hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten 
 of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou 
 shalt not eat of it : cursed is the ground for thy sake ; 
 in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life : 
 
 " Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; 
 and thou shalt eat the herb of the field ; 
 
 " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till 
 thou return unto, the ground; for out of it wast thou 
 taken ; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou 
 return. 
 
 " And the man called his wife's name Eve; because 
 she was the mother of all living. 
 
 " And Jehovah, The Elohim, made for Adam and for 
 his wife coats of skins, and clothed them. 
 
 " And Jehovah, The Elohim, said, Behold, the man 
 is become as one of us, to know good and evil : and 
 
The bible. 329 
 
 now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the 
 tree of life, and eat, and live for ever : 
 
 " Therefore Jehovah, The Elohim, sent him forth 
 from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from 
 whence he was taken. 
 
 " So He drove out the man ; and He placed at the 
 east of the garden of Eden the cherubim, and the flame 
 of a sword which turned every way, to keep the way of 
 the tree of life." 
 
 A wonderful and characteristic peculiarity of the 
 nature of man is consciousness of spiritual disease 
 as the consequence of violation of the Divine Law ; 
 and the efforts of mankind to make atonement for sin, 
 so as to regain the bliss of Eden, have provided one of 
 the most important and abstruse subjects of study for 
 the greatest minds of every age. Whatever the human 
 animal regards as most desirable has been abandoned 
 by the Man in his anxiety to regain consciousness of 
 communion with the Divine Father. Whatever seems 
 most valuable has been eagerly sacrificed. Not satisfied 
 with the repetition of prayers until mind and body have 
 been exhausted, attempts are made to intensify the 
 influence of the prayers, and to produce cumulative 
 action, by the use of prayer-wheels and clouds of 
 incense. Expedients are adopted to obtain assistance 
 from inanimate things, and to manifest to the world 
 the intense longings of the soul. 
 
 One might well believe that the snake was specially 
 created in order to provide a means of representing the 
 spirit of evil, and the insidiousness with which he 
 approaches the innocent to lure them to destruction. 
 
330 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Increase of knowledge has not enabled scholars to 
 imagine any symbol more appropriate ; and we are 
 virtually compelled to speak of the devil as the serpent 
 when we would express our meaning clearly and forcibly. 
 
 The primitive thinker necessarily saw double, or had 
 "second sight." There were no artificial words to 
 occupy attention or obstruct vision. Natural things 
 were seen as the revealers of spiritual truths. " For the 
 invisible things of Him since the creation of the world 
 are clearly seen, being perceived through the things 
 that are made." The importance of the Hebrew 
 writings cannot be discovered or recognised by those 
 who do not see beyond the material. " Now the natural 
 man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for 
 they are foolishness unto him ; and he cannot know 
 them, because they are spiritually discerned." Many 
 clever scholars, and men of intellect with much know- 
 ledge of physical science, see nothing more in the third 
 chapter of Genesis than a story of a material man, and 
 woman, and snake. 
 
 Adam and Eve were genuine innocent lovers, conscious 
 of the presence of the Infinite Creator, and imbued with 
 a profound sense of the mystery and sanctity of life ; 
 consequently they regarded each other with peculiar 
 respect, and even with a degree of reverence. They 
 had no lessons of experience to guide them ; but they 
 had the light of conscience and the ennobling influence 
 of pure love revealing truth and beauty. 
 
 11 Love is a spiritual coupling of two souls, 
 So much more excellent as it least relates 
 Unto the body ; circular, eternal; 
 
THE BIBLE. 331 
 
 Not feigned, or made, but born ; and then 
 
 So precious 
 As nought can value it but itself : so free 
 As nothing can commend it but itself 
 And in itself so round and liberal 
 As, where it favours, it bestows itself. 
 But we must take and understand this love 
 Along still as a name of dignity, 
 
 Not pleasure. 
 True love has no unworthy thought, no light, 
 Loose, unbecoming appetite or strain, 
 But fixed, constant, pure, immutable." 
 
 History confirms the teaching of the Bible that our 
 First Parents were perfect types of man and woman 
 perfect in body, and mind, and morals, but left to make 
 the great experiment of life without any assistance from 
 teachers. Human nature is the same in all ages; and, 
 however humiliating it may seem to some female 
 lecturers, the most stupid woman learns sooner or later 
 that it is her part to be the temptress, while many are 
 aware of this law even when children. Unfortunately 
 there are very estimable women in the present day who 
 find by sad experience that civilisation fails to provide 
 them with husbands, and that loveliness and charm may 
 be consigned to loneness. It too often happens that 
 "the young men are consumed in the fire and the 
 maidens are not given in marriage." 
 
 " It is the fate of a woman 
 Long to be patient and silent, to wait like a ghost that is 
 
 speechless 
 Till some questioning voice dissolves the spell of its silence ; 
 Hence is the inner life of so many suffering women 
 
332 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Sunless, and silent, and deep, like subterranean rivers 
 
 Running through caverns of darkness, unheard, unseen, and 
 
 unfruitful, 
 Chafing their channels of stone with endless and profitless 
 
 murmurs." 
 
 The introduction of conflict and evil into the Garden 
 of the Soul through the sensitiveness of woman was 
 absolutely necessary for the stimulation and the enjoy- 
 ment of the human race. There could be no sympathy 
 displayed or felt if there were no suffering to call it forth, 
 and to give it understanding ; and nothing could be 
 more dull and uninteresting than a world of perfect 
 men and women, without any experience of pain or 
 grief. Though Eve is the producer of the sorrow, she 
 is also the producer of the joy of life. 
 
 Man and woman, perfect in mind and in moral nature, 
 could not fall as the result of any corrupt desires spring- 
 ing up spontaneously within them. There was the 
 calmness of spirit that results from perfect self-control. 
 There was the confidence and fearlessness due to 
 absolute health of mind and body. They were not 
 liable to auto-infection. Hence corruption had to 
 come by external influence, and the serpent was selected 
 by the adversary as the agent to provoke. 
 
 The blood is not only naturally healthy, but is even 
 endowed with antiseptic power, so that it is able to 
 resist successfully many external hostile agencies, such 
 as unwholesome material accidentally swallowed with 
 the food, poisonous gases attacking through the nostrils 
 and lungs, and even wounds of the body threatening to 
 fester. Assistance in defence is always given by pure 
 
THE BIBLE. 333 
 
 air. Mild infection of the poison of diphtheria will be 
 overcome by simply living in the open, and attending 
 to the ordinary means of maintaining health. Those 
 who live under insanitary conditions will not be spared ; 
 and in such cases poison like that of diphtheria will 
 rapidly increase and develop so as to destroy life. 
 
 Facts of nature are not altered by human theories or 
 desires. The peritoneum is the material symbol of the 
 mysterious centre in the soul which is the source of the 
 sensation of happiness in those who have spiritual 
 health, or who are in possession of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven. Any impurity in the cavity of the peritoneum 
 makes the feeling of well-being impossible, and is 
 certain to lead to inflammation and death. If the 
 secretions that are constantly passing out of the peri- 
 toneum into the blood are pure there is a sense of 
 healthfulness, and of freedom from disease, though 
 there may be loss of arms, and legs, and sight, and 
 hearing. Now, the peritoneum of man is completely 
 shut off from contamination by external impurities, 
 whereas the peritoneum of woman is liable to deadly 
 infection from without. 
 
 In the moral, as well as in the physical world, the 
 inmost nature of woman is liable to be poisoned by an 
 atmosphere against which man is protected. 
 
 The Zulu and other superior African tribes owed 
 their superiority to the care with which they secured 
 the purity of their women and the virility of their sons. 
 In India, the sages and wise mothers have given the 
 authority of religious observances to customs designed 
 to secure the modesty and dignity of woman, and to 
 
334 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 inspire men with respect for the duties and the sanctity 
 of domestic life. 
 
 A community of healthy men would not suffer from 
 remorse or fear, and would not generate constitutional 
 disease ; but they would become cruel and merciless, 
 and would have no joy in life. They would risk death 
 and kill opponents without dread or compunction. 
 Brave savages, such as the Zulus and American Indians 
 of former days, who carefully protected their women, 
 had not the regrets and anxieties of modern civilised 
 man when rushing into battle ; and Japanese who 
 ignored female influence and emotion were able to dis- 
 embowel themselves with calmness and unconcern. 
 They had not the ennobling influence of good women ; 
 but neither had they ruin of mind and body by evil 
 women. 
 
 So long as the innocent man and woman stayed 
 together, and communed with Jehovah, The Elohim, 
 they were safe. Each acted as a guard and support for 
 the other ; yet woman was taken from beneath the arm 
 of man to show that she specially needs protection by 
 him. The impression of the frailty and the destructive 
 power of woman is so great in the East that she 
 virtually lives as a prisoner requiring to be kept under 
 continual supervision. 
 
 Although man and woman are one in the child that is 
 their offspring, and are equal in importance with regard 
 to the production of the offspring, yet the woman has 
 to say, " My husband is greater than I " ; and the 
 husband has to realise that his responsibility for the 
 care of his wife is greater than her responsibility for the 
 
THE BIBLE. 335 
 
 care of him, though each is a responsible being, endowed 
 with freedom of will, and finding pleasure in independent 
 action. There is a sense of triumph in the female soul 
 when she ventures to give expression to boastful 
 declarations of her ability to take care of herself in a 
 club from which men are supposed to be excluded by 
 her command ; yet experienced mothers are not comfort- 
 able when they see their daughters attempting to 
 imitate the free and easy manners that are regarded as 
 natural and proper in their sons ; and a brother has a 
 certain anxiety aroused when his sister proclaims 
 confidence in her own strength, and refuses to accept 
 counsels of caution such as Milton supposes Eve to have 
 received. 
 
 " Seek not temptation, then, which to avoid 
 Were better, and most likely if from me 
 Thou sever not ; trial will come unsought." 
 
 Very beautiful plants can be produced by careful 
 cultivation in a glass-house ; but they have no experi- 
 ence of the storms that may rage outside, and so do not 
 learn the need of the shelter they are receiving, and do 
 not form strong deep roots. Girls who have always 
 been protected from rudeness and corrupt influences are 
 liable to know the world as seen through the sheltering 
 glass, and to form their notions of human nature from 
 the description of conventional heroes and heroines in 
 books written for entertainment ; and they may fancy 
 that restrictions placed upon women are due to male 
 tyranny or jealousy, and are not the necessary con- 
 sequences of natural differences in the sexes. Thus a 
 
336 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 very clever woman, sufficiently educated to distinguish 
 herself when gaining medical and surgical qualifications, 
 was so ignorant of human nature that she could think 
 of no reason why she should not hold a hospital appoint- 
 ment where she would be called upon to perform all 
 operations on men that might be urgently needed. 
 
 The most intellectual woman depending on her own 
 strength is liable to fall as well as the most emotional, 
 though her collapse may not occur so early in life. A 
 strong, energetic, intellectual girl may laugh at warnings 
 of the dangers awaiting the solitary wanderer in search 
 of enjoyment; and her relatives may regard her as 
 superior to all weakness of nature ; yet she suddenly 
 surprises them by committing suicide, and they dread 
 to think what cause she may have had to plunge her in 
 despondency. The wife of a gentleman seems perfectly 
 happy and secure in the midst of her children, and in 
 his simplicity her husband allows her to receive private 
 lessons from a man without definite principles or stability 
 of character, with the result that she abandons husband 
 and children, and all her home, to be the companion of 
 a man so much inferior to her husband that her son 
 might well exclaim with Hamlet : 
 
 " You cannot call it love ; for, at your age, 
 The heyday in the blood is tame, it's humble, 
 And waits upon the judgment ; and what judgment 
 Would step from this to this ? Sense, sure, you have, 
 Else could you not have motion ; but, sure, that sense 
 Is apoplexed, for madness would not err, 
 Nor sense to ecstasy was ne'er so thralled 
 But it reserved some quantity of choice, 
 To serve in such a difference. What devil was't 
 
THE BIBLE. 337 
 
 That thus hath cozened you at hoodman -blind ? 
 Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, 
 Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all, 
 Or but a sickly part of one true sense 
 Could not so mope." 
 
 Hypnotism may be regarded by some as a method of 
 obtaining amusing entertainment, but it has always 
 been a deadly enemy to the woman of vacant mind 
 willing to seek pleasure in whatever novelty presents 
 itself. A continual dependence on a stronger nature is 
 necessary to save her from falling at some period under 
 the influence of an evil eye. Eve had no mother, and 
 no experience of ancestors, to warn her against the 
 danger of remaining within reach of the serpent, and 
 to tell her that the woman who hesitates to resist 
 temptation is lost. In her pursuit of novel pleasure, 
 she had wandered away from the protection of Adam, 
 and had stifled the voice of conscience, so that the 
 omniscience of Jehovah, the Perfect Mind, was forgotten. 
 She needed the advice 
 
 " The chariest maid is prodigal enough 
 If she unmask her beauty to the moon ; 
 Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes ; 
 The canker galls the infants of the spring 
 Too oft before their buttons be disclosed, 
 And in the morn and liquid dew of youth 
 Contagious blastments are most imminent. 
 Be wary, then ; best safety lies in fear ; 
 Youth to itself rebels, though none else near." 
 
 All human beings have the experience of Paul that 
 there is a law in the members warring against a law in 
 o.m. z 
 
33$ THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 the mind, and Peeking to bring the spirit under the 
 dominion of evil. All have to bewail the tendency to 
 leave undone the things that ought to be done, and to 
 do the things that ought not to be done. So Adam, as 
 well as Eve, had need of the warning 
 
 " But something may be done that we will not; 
 And sometimes we are devils to ourselves, 
 When we will tempt the frailty of our powers, 
 Presuming on their changeful potency." 
 
 Why did Paul so loudly proclaim his acceptance of the 
 primitive account of the Fall, which represents the 
 woman as yielding to temptation, and the man as 
 standing firm until influenced by her ? Was it because 
 he had a degraded conception of the relations of the 
 sexes, and had forgotten the teaching of primitive man 
 which declares that the two are one flesh, and each 
 responsible ? 
 
 The degree of civilisation attained by a nation is said 
 . to be marked by the degree of freedom and responsibility 
 accorded to its women ; and the ideal community of the 
 future is said to be that in which the sexes will have 
 equal rights and equal liberties of action. In the present 
 day, in this country, it is commonly assumed, or pre- 
 tended, that man is naturally the tempter, and that 
 woman is the good angel of society, always intent on 
 preserving a high moral standard. Why, then, do not 
 churches which demand confession agree to appoint 
 female confessors ? Why are women forbidden to sing 
 in the choirs of churches that have confessionals ? 
 
 Paul knew enough of the world around him to 
 
THE BIBLE. 339 
 
 recognise the deadly influence of the corrupt woman, 
 not only upon her immediate victims, but also upon 
 their children's children. He was well aware of the 
 story of Peter's denial, when the self-confident and 
 courageous follower of the Christ became a sneaking 
 liar through fear of the sneer of a girl. Multitudes of 
 men in Christian countries enter upon manhood with 
 high resolve to do their duty nobly in the world, yet 
 sink to disgrace and death through the subtle poison of 
 the serpent in a bad woman. 
 
 The conduct of Eve in tempting Adam was the result 
 of a natural tenderness and affection, and she bravely 
 accepted her full share of the curse. When called upon 
 to accompany her husband as a pilgrim in an unknown 
 land, without any provision for the future or any ap- 
 parent certainty of obtaining food, she never murmured 
 or hesitated, but went forward with trustful confidence, 
 proving that all the efforts of the serpent to destroy 
 happiness can be defeated when Jehovah, The Elohim, 
 provides clothing, and love rules the home. She was 
 a true help meet for the man, saying in her heart 
 
 " Adam shall share with me in bliss or woe ; 
 So dear I love him that with him all deaths 
 I could endure, without him live no life." 
 
 Experience soon teaches woman the need of protec- 
 tion for herself and children, and there is no question of 
 the relation of the sexes when a home has to be formed 
 in the wilderness away from all society. The authority 
 of the genuine man is never questioned by the genuine 
 woman. She accepts his dogmas without hesitation or 
 
 z 2 
 
340 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 question, and she can give them an attractiveness and a 
 power which they did not originally possess. Thus 
 a Mrs. Booth, recognising that it is her part to accept 
 the doctrines given to her by man, can exert an influence 
 in reclaiming the wandering and elevating the fallen 
 which the original teacher could not have acquired. 
 
 It is only those who try to learn the nature of man 
 from works of fiction who can fancy equality of the sexes 
 as possible. The qualities which woman most admires 
 in man are only manifested and cultivated when he is 
 placed in the position of provider and protector ; and 
 woman is the true help meet for man when she 
 abandons all thought of domination or independence, 
 and simply endeavours to be the bestower of comfort 
 and joy. 
 
 Olive Schreiner has cleverly depicted the fate of the 
 man and the woman who seek the bliss of Eden without 
 mutual help, thus setting themselves in opposition to 
 the primitive teaching that the woman is the help meet 
 for the man. The man is shown as expending his 
 strength, and wasting his life, in attempting to reach 
 the summit of a mountain, which becomes more barren 
 and rugged as he ascends ; so that there is no possibility 
 of enjoyment, or comfort, or even of rest, for the per- 
 verse fool. The only thing for him to find even on the 
 top of the mountain is a feather ; and in seeking this 
 light useless thing he falls over the precipice, without 
 even the satisfaction of catching the worthless object of 
 his search. What must be his regret when lying with 
 mangled limbs watching the vultures soon to feast upon 
 his body, and when, now fully awake to his folly, he 
 
THE BIBLE. 34I 
 
 thinks of the comfortable home with wife and children 
 that he might have had if he had attended to his work 
 as a reasonable man, instead of going on a wild-goose 
 chase ! 
 
 The woman who rebels against her natural lot as 
 wife and mother is represented as a camel sinking 
 beneath its burden. The ungainly animal, of uncertain 
 temper, ready to bite its best friend, is neither for use 
 nor ornament unless muzzled and kept in subjection. 
 The woman without guide or protection naturally goes 
 astray, and arrives on the bank of a river where there 
 is no bridge. With unreasoning obstinacy she attempts 
 to cross ; and in her lunacy says the only hope for her 
 sex lies in filling up the river with their bodies, so that 
 others may reach the land of happiness by walking over 
 them. As her body putrifies, she is a danger and a 
 nuisance even after death, since she poisons the water 
 for the inhabitants of the town which is situated at the 
 mouth of the river. 
 
 All men and women are in search of the state of per- 
 manent satisfaction and happiness that is described as 
 the Kingdom of Heaven ; and the story of our First 
 Parents must be carefully studied as a statement of the 
 fundamental principles on which the happiness of the 
 family and the race depend. Man was not made to be 
 a celibate ; and woman needs protection from causes of 
 pollution which would not poison man. Rivalry between 
 the sexes is madness ; since a rib must be in harmony 
 with the body of which it forms an essential part. 
 Woman is the good angel of man, making the earth a 
 paradise for him ; or she is a devil luring him to 
 
I 
 
 342 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 destruction. The absolutely sane man says of the pure 
 woman : 
 
 "O fairest of creation, last and best 
 Of all God's works, creature in whom excelled 
 Whatever can to sight or sound be formed 
 Holy, divine, good, amiable, or sweet." 
 
 In early life a boy, when in trouble, runs to his mother 
 for sympathy and comfort, and sees in her the perfection 
 of goodness ; yet she teaches him that mother is subordi- 
 nate to father in the Book of Genesis, and that father is 
 the great provider and guardian. As the wheel of life 
 moves round, the mother becomes strangely reluctant to 
 exercise authority ; and, instead of feeling pride in the 
 subserviency of her son, she delights to admire him, 
 and to lean on him. Her great dread is the evil woman ; 
 for she longs to see her son the father of sons, and she 
 knows that the evil woman will destroy the children 
 and their parents. The warning of the wise mother is: 
 " She hath cast down many wounded ; yea, many strong 
 men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to 
 hell, going down to the chambers of death." 
 
 The ancient Hebrews saw spiritual and mental 
 phenomena as precursors of physical phenomena, as 
 one must see memory or emotion before seeing the 
 physical phenomena as providing the medium for con- 
 veying the description of the abstract idea to others. 
 In our materialistic age many teachers see the physical 
 affection without thinking of the spiritual. Paul the 
 Apostle was strongly convinced of the danger of per- 
 mitting women to attempt to be original teachers, or to 
 superintend the instruction of men. He knew that 
 
THE BIBLE. 343 
 
 good women are the saviours of society ; but he also 
 knew that one bad woman can destroy a multitude of 
 good men, women, and children. There are degenerate 
 effeminate men who will accept the delusions of a 
 Joanna Southcott as valuable truths, and will submit 
 themselves to the vagaries of ignorant women who 
 repeat with volubility and grace the words employed by 
 teachers of science, as there are mean men dependent 
 on women to support them ; yet the mothers of men 
 agree with Paul when he says : " Let the woman learn 
 in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman 
 to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be 
 in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And 
 Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived 
 was in the transgression." 
 
 There are pious talented women in England who 
 could lecture more eloquently than most preachers, but 
 the really wise women seldom wish to occupy a 
 prominent position ; for they know that there is an 
 elemental principle in the nature of men which prompts 
 him to resent female dominance, and to devote himself 
 to the woman seeking his protection. Woman gains 
 the homage and devotion of man by her purity, or 
 beauty, or grace, or even by her dependence ; while she 
 loses her power when she trusts to physical strength or 
 intellectual ability. 
 
 The woman who is not under subjection, and who 
 defies authority, will lead her followers into the strangest 
 folly. She will mistake an accumulation of morbid 
 gases for a living being of her own originating, and will 
 deceive all who place dependence upon her. She will 
 
344 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 so confound truth with falsehood, and purity with 
 impurity, that those who accept her spiced and attrac- 
 tive food will suffer from colic, or may even be destroyed 
 by the incompatible ingredients which she has mixed so 
 as to generate poison. Her phantoms give her the most 
 intense and convincing sensations of solid matter ; and 
 she will believe she is worshipping the Creator when 
 she abandons herself to a condition of mental torpor, or 
 fatuity, or titillation, under the influence of entrancing 
 music or beautiful scenery. When once committed to a 
 false statement she will continue to attempt to give it 
 the appearance of truth by embellishing it with count- 
 less and contradictory additions ; and her counterfeit 
 sincerity will make dupes of honest men more readily 
 than of good women, who have intuition to recognise 
 feminine duplicity. While seeking a remedy for tooth- 
 ache, she will maintain that there is no such thing as 
 pain ; and with artificial teeth in her mouth replacing 
 diseased ones extracted, she will deny the existence of 
 disease. Silly men, apparently sane and honest, will 
 accept the statements of a woman who tells them she 
 has miraculous conversations with marvellous sages in 
 Thibet, or in some place supposed to be inaccessible to 
 investigators of the truth of her statements ; and, while 
 professing to be a martyr in the cause of truth, she will 
 add lie to lie in order to bolster up the fraud, and will 
 talk pleasantly, attractively, and gracefully for hours 
 without any definite or clear conception. A man will 
 lie to deceive others, and as a criminal ; while a woman 
 will lie to deceive herself, and without realising the 
 depth of her depravity. 
 
THE BIBLE. 345 
 
 In the ideal family the relation of the sexes is that 
 described by primitive man, and accepted by all Hebrews 
 or Christians. Woman is regarded as the rib of man. 
 The rib has not the guiding function of the eye or ear, 
 nor has it the degree of independent action possessed 
 by the hand or foot ; it does not take an active part in 
 the conflict with external enemies, nor even in the work 
 of providing the necessaries of existence ; but it is 
 essential to the breathing, and to the normal action of 
 the heart, so that it is needed to maintain the purity 
 and vigour of the whole system. Disease of a rib causes 
 general enfeeblement and defect of vitality which would 
 not result from loss of a limb. 
 
 The welfare of the children must ultimately deter- 
 mine the relation of the sexes in every community 
 which has not fallen so far from primitive perfection as 
 to be unworthy to continue in existence. Whole nations 
 that had become hopelessly corrupt have been blotted 
 out ; and countries which were once densely populated 
 have become desolate and waste. In corrupt societies 
 the liberty of women has had to be restricted in order 
 to preserve the race from extinction ; and the wise 
 mothers of India, and of Moslem lands, have weighty 
 reason to oppose the efforts of Europeans to abolish the 
 old custom of protecting women. Modesty, self-sacri- 
 fice, and devotion to husband and children are regarded 
 in the East as fundamental female virtues ; so that the 
 people read with horror of the brazen stare, the child- 
 less marriages, and the shameful divorces of France, and 
 England, and America. The nation that disregards the 
 teaching of primitive man must become subject to the 
 
346 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 nation that obeys the command to go forth, and 
 multiply, and replenish the earth ; and the ruler of the 
 world cannot permit a tew selfish white men to mono- 
 polise Australia and new Zealand if the prolific Japanese, 
 with self-denying women, are in need of unoccupied 
 territory in which to form homes. 
 
 Those accustomed to study the perfect symbolic 
 language of the Hebrews, and to see the physical as 
 the revelation of the spiritual, have no difficulty in 
 understanding the meaning of the apple eaten by Eve. 
 Bunyan tells us that the sons of Christiana ate some 
 fruit which was growing over the wall by the roadside, 
 and which made them sick and distressed afterwards. 
 Materialists discuss whether the fruit eaten by Eve was 
 not something else than an apple, such as an orange, or 
 a tomato. When we are told to judge a principle by 
 its fruits we do not look for grapes or pears ; nor when 
 a man is said to think deeply, do we attempt to measure 
 the depth of his thoughts with a foot-rule. Primitive 
 man had not a complex elaborate supply of words to 
 express his thoughts ; but he knew exactly what he 
 meant to express and how to express it. 
 
 The supremacy of conscience, and the necessity of 
 absolute truthfulness for the satisfaction of the nature 
 of man, are emphatically asserted by the primitive 
 teacher. In the present day judges have to lament the 
 prevalence of perjury; and there are even professional 
 teachers of religion who excuse a lie when it is said 
 that the falsehood is not intended to injure any one. 
 There is no sense of sin until found out. There was 
 no human being to be affected by the confession or 
 
THE BIBLE. 347 
 
 denial of Adam ; yet he was overwhelmed by the sense 
 of guilt because conscious of having offended against a 
 Divine law. A man may make long and eloquent 
 prayers in public and yet be a liar ; but he will detest 
 all falsehood if he habitually communes with the Creator 
 in solitude. Many lie without compunction or hesita- 
 tion because they have become degraded and demoralised 
 by placing artificial conventions, or images, or human 
 intermediaries, between them and the Divine Mind. 
 The reliable statesman lets nothing come between him 
 and Jehovah. 
 
 The most ancient teaching declares that the bliss of 
 Eden cannot be permitted to the man or woman who 
 deceives; and the Bible is emphatic in its statement 
 that no liar can inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 Evolutionists fancy that religion and morality improve 
 by natural law as the world becomes older. Is the liar 
 in India, or America, or England, regarded with as 
 much detestation as the liar was regarded four or six 
 thousand years ago ? The primitive man could not 
 dream of the evolution of a moral standard ; for he saw 
 clearly the right angle made by the Plumb from heaven 
 with the Level on earth, and therefore cared nothing 
 for approval or disapproval except that of his own 
 conscience. 
 
 The regulation of the relations of the sexes has always 
 been one of the great difficulties of the legislator. 
 When Moses made his wonderful attempt to produce 
 a perfect race of men and a perfect condition of society, 
 he saw that there must first be absolute sincerity and 
 honesty, and that all untruthfulness, or deception, or 
 
348 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 concealment must lead to shame and demoralisation ; 
 so he decreed that those guilty of illicit sexual relations 
 should be put to death. He soon found that the people 
 had fallen so far from primitive perfection that such a 
 law could not be carried out, and he was compelled to 
 make a compromise by ordering the guilty couple to 
 marry. The worshippers of Baal were so intermixed 
 with the worshippers of Jehovah that they could not 
 be separated with certainty, and yet all had to be 
 legislated for; so Moses had even to permit divorce, 
 though believing that a man and his wife are one flesh. 
 Wheat and tares grow together in society, and good 
 and evil are in conflict in every human being ; so that 
 the judge is confronted by the problem discussed by 
 Shakespeare in Measure for Measure. In every age and 
 nation there is the incessant conflict between virtue 
 and vice ; and though woman is the mother of man, 
 and is even the revealer of Jehovah, there is the 
 necessity for continued watchfulness to prevent her 
 becoming the poisoner of humanity. The sneer of a 
 woman may paralyse a saint ; and yet when the 
 Israelites were in danger of perishing from poisonous 
 fiery serpents they were saved by merely looking at a 
 serpent purified in the furnace. 
 
 Adam has been accused of cowardice and dishonesty 
 because he said the woman tempted him ; but in this 
 he was displaying the candour and sincerity of his 
 nature by stating the simple fact. Eve was merely 
 stating a fact when she said her fall was due to the 
 influence of the serpent. If either had thought the fact 
 of the temptation coming from outside self to be an 
 
THE BIBLE. 349 
 
 excuse freeing from responsibility, there would not 
 have been sense of guilt. Both had to learn by 
 experience that the downward path is easy. 
 
 " Is there a man who has not tried 
 How mirth may into folly glide, 
 And folly into sin ? " 
 
 The serpent may have gone on its belly for ages 
 before man was created, and yet the primitive teacher 
 seems to make it appear that this mode of progression 
 was imposed because of the temptation of Eve. The 
 original painting was intended for men able to see 
 through the material. It was Satan, the adversary of 
 man, that was represented as compelled to eat dust, 
 and to crawl without legs. So long as men remained 
 elohim, or perfect minds, Satan was non-existent to 
 them, since they knew nothing of evil. 
 
 Philosophers of every age have discussed the problem 
 of evil, and have generally left their readers like 
 wanderers in a maze of words. If primitive man had 
 not been superior to all modern teachers in intellect 
 and moral sense, he would only have seen a perpetual 
 conflict between life and death, and pleasure and pain, 
 and good and evil, without knowing anything of the 
 Divine Mind, or of Jehovah. Fortunately for humanity, 
 the primitive man was perfect in intellect and moral 
 sense, and placed on record the true relation of man to 
 his Creator, and to his adversary. 
 
 The power of Satan is so limited that he cannot 
 injure the worshipper of Jehovah, except in the heel, 
 or in that part necessarily in contact with the earth ; 
 
350 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 and he cannot assimilate the same food as the spiritual 
 man, but must depend entirely upon the material and 
 the sensual for his power. Even the heel can be pro- 
 tected, as the body was protected by skins ; and the 
 system of religion and ethics growing upon spiritual 
 truth will enable a man to walk among serpents with 
 safety. Thus the genuine members of the Salvation 
 Army, and other Christian workers, have moved among 
 the most deadly serpents without contamination, as 
 the careful use of antiseptic precautions enables the 
 physician to encounter the corresponding physical 
 poisons. 
 
 When fallen man attempted to form a theory for 
 himself to explain the relation of good and evil, he could 
 only suppose Ahriman, as spirit of evil, in conflict with 
 Ormuzd, the spirit of good, and Satan as a powerful 
 rival of God ; so that man seemed a helpless puppet 
 between the opposing forces. The primitive teaching 
 shows the spirit of evil as inferior to man himself. The 
 devil, to be an opponent able to test the strength 
 thoroughly, must depend for his power upon the power 
 of the man opposed to him ; so that, the greater the 
 spiritual influence of a man, the more severely he must 
 struggle, and the more plain and real his adversary 
 must become. No true spirit is allowed to be crushed. 
 
 For all Christians the devil exists as a serpent ; but 
 for men abandoned to vice he becomes a roaring lion, 
 before which the man is helpless. Those who are not 
 conscious of being anything more than mere brutes of 
 evolution may expect that they will share the brute's 
 freedom from remorse and shame, and will always 
 
THE BIBLE. 351 
 
 remain in ignorance of the existence of an adversary ; 
 but sooner or later they find themselves slaves of Satan, 
 unless they are prematurely destroyed, so that their eyes 
 are never opened to human consciousness. 
 
 When a man is so full of enthusiasm that he would 
 sacrifice his life for his principles, it may be true kind- 
 ness to offer him the opportunity of proving his sincerity. 
 The Adversary had to be created to give man exercise. 
 The brave patriot gladly encounters the risk of wounds, 
 disease, and death for his country, while the coward 
 and the idiot sit at home in safety and in comfort. A 
 righteous man must often suffer more than the flagrantly 
 wicked ; for the wicked may be as beasts of no value, 
 whereas the righteous desires in his heart to gain 
 wisdom and strength, which can only be obtained by 
 testing and conflict, so as to exercise his spiritual 
 muscles. Job had the true spirit of a righteous man, 
 longing for knowledge of himself and of God ; and he 
 learned to be thankful for the trials which revealed to 
 him the infinite greatness and perfection of the Divine 
 Mind in comparison with the highest mere human 
 nature can attain. 
 
 It is said in Genesis that the earth was cursed as 
 a result of the Fall. The number of cities that once 
 existed in the region of the Euphrates proves that the 
 land must have been amazingly fertile even four 
 thousand years ago ; and a race of elohim, or perfect 
 men, existing before the Fall may have had all wants 
 supplied without necessity for toil or care, so that 
 nothing disturbed their rational enjoyment and philo- 
 sophic calm. 
 
352 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Some have supposed a long interval between the 
 creation of man described in the first chapter and the 
 beginning of the conflict described in the next chapters. 
 Man in the beginning was an elohim, or perfect mind, 
 knowing the Creator as The Elohim, or the Creative 
 Mind ; and was commanded to go forth, and multiply, 
 and replenish the earth. The result would be the 
 population of the world by a race of absolutely reason- 
 able beings, without love, or hate, or anger, or jealousy, 
 or despair, or pity, or remorse, calmly fulfilling all 
 demands of reason, and as indifferent to changing con- 
 ditions as the most extreme stoic or Buddhist could 
 desire. Owing to absence of discontent, they would 
 have no desire to invent novel means of gaining power, 
 or wealth, or pleasure ; they would not try to explore 
 the secrets of nature, and would not build for ornament 
 or pleasure ; but they would erect megalithic structures 
 as landmarks or for some useful purpose, thus leaving 
 evidence of their superior intelligence and power. 
 
 Such perfect beings would need to be brought into 
 conflict with the Adversary in order to stimulate them 
 to discover and develop the resources provided by the 
 Creator for the use and enjoyment of man. Before the 
 Fall there would be no inclination to pray, since the 
 elohim would be absolutely confident in themselves, 
 regulating every action by definite fixed principles with 
 mathematical accuracy, and in harmony with The 
 Elohim. 
 
 There is evidence that a race possessing wonderful 
 innate intellectual and physical power was at some 
 remote period spread over the earth ; and mankind 
 
THE BIBLE. 353 
 
 may have succeeded in maintaining almost primitive 
 perfection for generations after the initial success of the 
 Adversary. This would explain the statement in Genesis 
 that after the corrupt descendants of Adam had multi- 
 plied on the earth the sons of The Elohim intermarried 
 with the daughters of men because they saw that they 
 were fair ; and the children are said to have been worthy 
 of fame and renown. The calm philosopher is very 
 likely to be more attracted by a dancing woman glow- 
 ing with passion than by an impassive unemotional 
 female model of wisdom. 
 
 The primitive man would have sunk in hopeless decay 
 after the Fall it he had had as little faith and courage 
 as some modern teachers. He did not find the earth a 
 barren desert and a scene of woe, but a grand inherit- 
 ance, with beauty and wealth on every side, only needing 
 continual labour to prevent the weeds from choking the 
 corn. Adam and Eve must have faced the future with 
 the prayer in their hearts, 
 
 " Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, 
 Pilgrim through this trial land ; 
 I am weak, but Thou art mighty, 
 Hold me with Thy powerful hand." 
 
 The only men and women who are fit to be pioneers 
 in a new country are those who find delight in com- 
 muning with the Creator, and whose spirits are conse- 
 quently in happy harmony whatever the external con- 
 ditions may be. Those without true religion must have 
 some artificial excitement to make life tolerable ; and 
 the husband and wife without religion cannot bear to 
 
 O.M. A A 
 
354 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 be left alone. The Puritans would never have made 
 happy homes in the backwoods of America, nor the 
 Dutch in the remote solitudes of South Africa, if they 
 had not felt the impulse to exclaim : 
 
 " O Lord of heaven, and earth, and sea, 
 To Thee all praise and glory be ; 
 How shall we show our love to Thee, 
 Giver of all ? " 
 
 Tasks are given to men and to nations in proportion 
 to strength and opportunity. Our first parents were 
 treated by their Father as children needing special care. 
 They were placed in a temperate fertile land, with 
 streams and rivers not difficult to cross, and with hills 
 and mountains pleasant to climb. The unknown land 
 of Europe was within easy reach when the adventurers 
 had gained confidence to venture across the Hellespont ; 
 and there was a great inland sea near at hand, studded 
 with islands so as to tempt them to make longer and 
 longer excursions while retaining means of communi- 
 cating with friends and home. 
 
 Primitive man, in the further account of Adam and 
 Eve, gives an important lesson on heredity, and on the 
 danger to mankind of small families. The parents who 
 had never had their kindlier feelings cultivated by taking 
 care of the old or the helpless, and who had been able 
 to lead a purely selfish life, with every comfort, had 
 their first child naturally selfish, brutal, bad-tempered, 
 and a curse to society, though they were physically per- 
 fect. If the family had been limited to two, the murderer 
 of his brother would have been the only survivor of his 
 parents. 
 
THE BIBLE. 355 
 
 Though Cain had such a selfish, jealous, and violent 
 disposition, his conscience was so sensitive that his 
 greatest punishment was to be left unpunished, except 
 by his sense of guilt. The distinction between right 
 and wrong, and between truth and falsehood, was much 
 more clearly made by primitive man than it is at pre- 
 sent by the mass of those described as civilised. The 
 conscience of Cain exercised such a powerful effect 
 upon him, that his countenance was permanently 
 changed, and he felt his punishment too hard to bear. 
 His sad and gloomy aspect was so different from that 
 of any of the elohim, that he feared they might kill him 
 as a degraded being not fit to live. 
 
 Primitive man worshipped the Divine Mind in spirit 
 and in truth. Materialism in worship is shown in 
 Genesis as offensive to God, and as producing cruelty of 
 disposition in the worshipper. Cain would only offer to 
 Jehovah what he could obtain from the earth ; and he 
 learned that his physical strength, and his skill, and his 
 wealth were of no value without spiritual worship. Abel 
 offered life ; and his offering found favour with Jehovah. 
 The materialist seeks influence, and power, and honour 
 by his money and his control of physical surroundings ; 
 and he hates with murderous hatred the genuine 
 Christian, who is held in esteem for his goodness alone. 
 
 Though the Adversary is compelled to live in the 
 material, and to proceed as a serpent in his mode of 
 operation, he has always been able to interfere greatly 
 with the worship of the Divine Mind, and to obscure 
 and paralyse spiritual vision, by presenting the sensual 
 and the material in attractive forms. Whatever the 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 worshipper of Jehovah may employ as a symbol the 
 Serpent promptly appropriates and holds up before 
 worshippers as possessing Some peculiar virtue in itself. 
 Even Peter was so much occupied with the material 
 that his Master said to him on one occasion, " Get thee 
 behind Me, Satan ; thou art a stumbling-block unto 
 Me." The pious self-sacrificing founder of the Jesuits 
 fell into the same snare as Peter, and chose Mr. Worldly 
 Wiseman for his guide ; though a little study of the 
 Temptation of Christ might have shown him the gulf 
 between a Jesuit and a Christian. 
 
 Primitive man taught that religion is the cultivation 
 of the Garden of the Soul by the worship of the Divine 
 Mind as The Elohim, or the L O M, representing 
 Intellect, Emotion, and Will. Those who have the 
 Vedas to give them fragments of the primitive teaching 
 employ the syllable A U M instead of L O M as the 
 Name for the Creator ; and the Brahmin knows that the 
 true source of all wisdom is meditation on the syllable 
 A U M. Though without words or music, the primitive 
 man could sing in spirit, 
 
 " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty ! 
 
 All Thy works shall praise Thy Name in earth, and sky, and 
 sea ; 
 Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty ! 
 God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity!" 
 
 When burial-mounds, and cave-dwellings, and flint 
 weapons are found in England or France presenting 
 evidence that they are two thousand years old, they are 
 said to be records of primitive man ; but the account of 
 Adam and Eve was written thousands of years before 
 
THE BIBLE. 357 
 
 what have been described as the Iron Age, and the 
 Bronze Age, and the Stone Age, and the Cave-man Age, 
 and the Neolithic Age, and the Prehistoric Age of 
 England and France. Those ignorant of history can 
 hardly believe that there were as much wealth, and 
 luxury, and extravagance, and materialism, and vice in 
 Rome two thousand years ago as there are in London 
 or Paris at present ; yet the Romans had to look two 
 thousand years further back to the palmy days of Egypt 
 and Babylon ; and the Egyptians and Babylonians 
 looked back to their remote ancestors as the founders 
 of all philosophy, and even as elohim or gods. Thus in 
 the East there is even yet the worship of ancestors ; and 
 the Japanese or Chinese ruler is supposed worthy of his 
 position because a descendant of the primitive elohim, 
 and of The Elohim. 
 
 The primitive man was conscious that he lived in 
 eternity, and that the present life is merely a brief 
 stage of existence. The spiritual was to him the 
 only permanent reality ; while the material was seen 
 as a transitory symbol and revelation of the invisible, 
 and the body as the clothing and revelation of the 
 spirit. Modern materialistic degradation and loss of 
 spiritual perception, combined with ignorance of history, 
 have caused some writers to discuss " the evolution of 
 the idea of immortality." Such writers have described 
 the Japanese as destitute of religion, because they have 
 no disputations on the subject ; yet the Japanese owe 
 their superiority to their spirituality, which makes 
 religion the one thing essential in life, and makes the 
 invisible world the dominating influence. When a 
 
35 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 primitive patriarch died he simply went to his fathers ; 
 and when a Japanese commits suicide he makes an 
 opening for his real self to escape. 
 
 For many generations the primitive wisdom must 
 have been taught by symbol and allegory, with the 
 interpretation preserved in memory and handed down 
 from father to son. The supremacy of the patriarch was 
 recognised because in him was stored up the knowledge 
 necessary for the salvation of mankind. The ancient 
 wisdom was so vital to the existence of society that 
 ancestors were spoken of with the utmost reverence ; 
 and genealogies were carefully kept, because the more 
 remote the ancestor the nearer he was to the original 
 elohim, and to The Elohim. Those who rejected 
 instruction in youth, and wandered away from teachers, 
 speedily became superstitious savages ; for men de- 
 generate with amazing rapidity by the natural law of 
 degradation whenever left without knowledge of the 
 primitive theology. There is no natural law that will 
 take the place of intelligent teachers in saving the 
 children of modern scholars from sinking into the 
 condition of debased idolaters. 
 
 In less than one thousand years after the time of 
 Adam there must have been a population upon the 
 earth greater than there is at present. According to 
 the Bible all men were of one speech for nearly two 
 thousand years ; and the records of Assyria and Egypt 
 prove that the population was very dense in ancient 
 times. We may feel certain that before many centuries 
 there were multitudes who were ignorant, unruly, and 
 vicious, like those in the present day. There were no 
 
THE BIBLE. 35g 
 
 printing machines, or railways, so that isolated com- 
 munities sank lower and lower towards mere animalism ; 
 while the large centres of population became demoralised 
 by luxury and vice. Thus the flood of wickedness 
 threatened to destroy mankind, and the faithful were 
 reduced to Noah and his family ; as on many occasions 
 afterwards there were only a few living above the flood 
 of sensualism, and preserving the knowledge necessary 
 for the salvation of the race. 
 
 Primitive man worshipped the Creator as Heaven- 
 Father; but the ancient conception of a good father 
 was not quite the same as that common in the present 
 day. The father was regarded as properly the possessor 
 of power, knowledge, and authority ; responsible for 
 enforcing truthfulness, diligence, and order, in his 
 family. When Moses spoke of the Creator it was as 
 "Jehovah, Jehovah, an Elohim full of compassion and 
 gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and 
 truth ; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity 
 and transgression and sin ; and that will by no means 
 clear the guilty : visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon 
 the children, and upon the children's children, upon the 
 third and upon the fourth generation." Instead of the 
 ancient belief in a father's responsibility the modern 
 parent tries to cast his duty upon teachers and police- 
 men ; and he is shocked when he finds that men have 
 to reap as they sow. 
 
 The descendants of Shem appear to have been the 
 teachers of China and the greater part of Asia, and to 
 have maintained the worship of The Elohim, or the 
 Supreme Intelligence, approving of virtue and punish- 
 
360 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 ing vice ; but they had no great national tradition 
 pointing to The Elohim as Jehovah. Every empire 
 owed its existence to the worship of The Elohim, or 
 Divine Mind, and to a striving to regain original per- 
 fection ; the ruler of the empire being recognised as in 
 some degree an elohim, or god, and as a symbol of the 
 Ideal Man, the Son of God. Decay and anarchy always 
 set in when the lofty primitive standard of truth, justice, 
 and righteousness, was neglected. 
 
 The Bible is the record of the struggles of those who 
 preserved the teaching of Genesis as their guide and 
 who were taught by calamities to recognise The Elohim 
 as Jehovah, the Deliverer and Saviour. Moses made 
 the great experiment of history, when he devoted his 
 life to the institution of a system designed to produce 
 a perfect state of society, and a perfect race ; but 
 the Chosen People had probably to contend more 
 continuously with the Adversary, and to suffer more 
 humiliation, than the nations of China and India. 
 
 It seems a spiritual law that man must support 
 himself in order to be really sound in body and mind. 
 The pioneer of the forest or the desert knows Jehovah ; 
 his son, reared in ease, knows The Elohim only ; and 
 the third generation has spiritual sense so undeveloped 
 that material symbols are accepted as idols. The 
 rapidity of degradation is astounding. At one period 
 we have such a city as Thebes with its magnificent 
 palaces and temples, so that decay seems impossible ; 
 andjyet^all vanish away until semi-savages wander over 
 its site without a thought of the glories of the past. 
 The standards of truth, justice, and morality of the 
 
THE BIBLE. 361 
 
 Hebrews are so far forgotten that philosophers discuss 
 the superiority of modern morals ; and the evolution of 
 sanitary science is described as if Moses had never 
 lived, and as if ancient Rome did not possess a bath. 
 
 Woman has always been employed by Satan as his 
 special agent for preventing progress and destroying 
 happiness. When wars caused great increase of the 
 number of widows and of unmarried women the high 
 ideal of man's responsibility was used by the Serpent 
 as the ground for inducing every man to provide for 
 as many women as his means would permit. The 
 widow and the orphan were not supported by charity, 
 but claimed homes as a right. The Bible does not 
 always teach by asserting that conduct is right or 
 wrong, but points to inevitable consequences. Family 
 dissension and corruption resulted from polygamy; 
 yet the American woman who goes through forms of 
 marriage and divorce with no sense of the duty of a 
 wife, and with the morals of an ape, cannot claim the 
 support of the Bible when she pretends to be more 
 respectable than the faithful wife of a Mormon. The 
 Bible gives honour to the faithful wife and the good 
 mother ; and though it shows Eve as the medium 
 employed by the devil to poison humanity, it shows 
 Mary as the medium selected by the Divine Spirit 
 for producing the Incarnation of the Archetypal Man, 
 the Son of God. 
 
 Freedom of will made it necessary that man should 
 be at liberty to make every possible experiment to 
 secure his own happiness ; and we may regard the 
 Creator as treating man as a wise father treats a 
 
362 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 strong energetic son resolved to conquer a new land. 
 There is no interference with his independence and he 
 is certain of blessing so long as he is diligent, truthful, 
 and just. The Creator even provides a covering of skins 
 to protect the sinner from thorns when he has gone out 
 of the way ; and the vagrant criminal when apparently 
 in a wretched plight thinks himself enjoying life much 
 better than the pious adviser who would give him a 
 comfortable home in return for honest labour. 
 
 Suppose an intelligent but ignorant man seeking 
 information regarding the origin of the human race, 
 and the relation of man to the Creator, were to inquire 
 of a modern scholar attempting to form a theory with- 
 out the aid of the Bible, what would be the result ? 
 He would hear of the Unknowable, or of the Power, 
 or of the Unseen, or of the Infinite, or of the Evolving 
 Substance ; and with regard to the object of life, 
 or the meaning of existence, or duty to others, he 
 would be told that there is everlasting struggle in which 
 the fittest survive, until they vanish. Let the inquirer 
 then hear the first three chapters of Genesis and he will 
 feel like one who has been listening to incoherent 
 dreamers and is suddenly transported to the society of 
 the wisest and most experienced philosophers. 
 
 Who could have written such information as that 
 given in Genesis ? No one who has lived in what is 
 called historic times could have done so. No man but 
 Adam had the necessary qualifications. The teacher 
 who could without aid see the Formal Cause, and thus 
 the true origin and nature of man, must have had a 
 perfect intellect and perfect moral nature, and, con- 
 
THE BIBLE. 363 
 
 sequently, a perfect body. Such could not be the product 
 of evolution. 
 
 The long and indefinite history of animal life on the 
 earth cannot provide man with any knowledge capable 
 of guiding him aright in religion, or morals, or politics, 
 or even in the relations of social life. For the first step 
 towards civilisation a perfect teacher was needed. Adam 
 was the only man who ever existed under the conditions 
 essential to the production of a perfect teacher. He 
 alone was able to give infallible information regarding 
 the origin and nature of man, and without his teaching 
 the human race would speedily descend to the lowest 
 stage of savage life, and would become extinct. Nature 
 might teach one man to admire the peaceful life of 
 the sheep, but would teach another to seek profit and 
 pleasure by imitating the wolf. Only a perfect teacher 
 could speak with authority. 
 
 What is needed to produce a perfect teacher ? In 
 the first place he must have a perfect brain and a per- 
 fect body. Phrenology will not admit that any modern 
 man has a head which could not possibly be improved ; 
 and physiology denies that any man has a blood supply 
 in no way deficient either in quantity or quality. One 
 philosopher may have a hydrocephalic type of head, 
 with ponderous forehead and small posterior brain ; so 
 that he is full of dreams and fancies, and theories, but 
 has not sufficient energy to gain practical knowledge of 
 life, or sufficient force of character to follow what is 
 true in the face of powerful opposition. A man of this 
 stamp may be eminent for scholarship and yet may be 
 utterly unreliable as a leader. He cannot even be 
 
364 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 depended upon for truthfulness, since the weak man 
 naturally tries to shield himself by guile. It is said 
 of a distinguished preacher, who left the Church of 
 England for the Church of Rome, that his nature 
 compelled him to submit to whatever power made 
 the greatest pretensions. He had never learned to 
 stand alone, or to support himself by his own labour. 
 Some of the most useful and reliable modern teachers 
 have heads of very inferior type, so that they are 
 incapable of profound thought or original investigation ; 
 yet defects are counter-balanced by fidelity to the 
 instructions given to them in the Bible. 
 
 In order to see things in their true relations it is 
 necessary to be free from prejudice. Adam was free 
 from prejudice. He did not belong to any sect or caste 
 whose members felt bound to preserve their exclusive- 
 ness and dignity by closing their eyes to all light except 
 that which could be admitted by their own carefully 
 constructed windows. He had not learned the pedi- 
 grees and accomplishments of a number of dead Greek 
 and Roman thieves and harlots as a necessary prelimi- 
 nary to prepare his mind for the instruction of his 
 children in theology. The man with perfect mind had 
 the advantage of looking at Truth in her own form, 
 since no milliner had yet learned to dress an ugly and 
 deformed dwarf in order to make him appear a king of 
 men ; nor had any depraved artist in words attempted to 
 adorn vice so as to gain for it the homage due to virtue. 
 The man and his wife were naked, and so was Nature. 
 
 In order to see Truth clearly a man must be superior to 
 all inducements to pervert it. Adam had no temptation 
 
THE BIBLE. 365 
 
 to cringe to a wealthy liar, or to flatter a deceitful 
 woman. It would never occur to him to assert or 
 insinuate what was false, or to conceal or misrepresent 
 what was true. He could not have learned to calculate 
 chances of expediency, or to make compromises under 
 the influence of selfishness or cowardice. When he 
 was certain that the object before him was a serpent, he 
 described it by its own name. 
 
 In consequence of having a perfect mind, Adam knew 
 exactly the boundary between his knowledge and his 
 ignorance. He did not fancy that he knew things of 
 which he was ignorant, nor did vanity prompt him to 
 pretend to know. He never tried to conceal ignorance, 
 or to satisfy inquiry by giving utterance to a multitude 
 of confusing sounds. He only spoke when he had some- 
 thing to say; and what he had to say he said. His 
 teaching was in pictures. 
 
 The imagination of Adam was always harmoniously 
 related to his reason, so that he never fancied a hypo- 
 thesis and then mistook it for a Law of Nature. The 
 perfect man, studying Nature under normal conditions, 
 saw objects in their true form ; and the image recalled 
 by reflection was always pictured without exaggeration 
 or perversion, so that it was always positive and clear. 
 
 The perfect teacher must have a perfect language. 
 Multiplication of words without knowledge is the fruit- 
 ful source of misunderstanding and confusion. Adam 
 was not troubled by ambiguous words. No savage or 
 degraded man could ever have originated language, or 
 revealed the true foundation of science and law. The 
 most highly civilised Europeans if deprived of books 
 
366 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 and ancestral knowledge, and compelled to live in the 
 unsettled state of savages, would, in a few generations, 
 lose almost all their language, and would never be able 
 to regain it until some of the original knowledge should 
 be brought to them from without. 
 
 The artificial conditions under which we now exist 
 prevent the full development of our faculties. We 
 repeat the words invented by others, and fancy that 
 ability to repeat words is equivalent to the possession 
 of knowledge. We do not think, or try to form words 
 for ourselves. A man who has never seen a mountain 
 will attempt to describe what the Alps are like ; and 
 multitudes of people have become so familiar with the 
 word steam-engine, that they fancy they know the 
 thing signified ; but how many of them could describe 
 its construction? 
 
 Adam had to think without words; and that seems 
 quite impossible to many of the most eminent modern 
 teachers. The depth of insight and intensity of feeling 
 possessed by the peasant who communes in solitude with 
 God cannot be made intelligible to the spurious scholar 
 who assumes that thought is measured by loquacity. 
 
 The inventor of a machine must think the machine 
 before he produces it ; and the inventor of an original 
 word had to see the thought before he gave it expression. 
 We have been wheeled in perambulators until our limbs 
 are atrophied. Some men have advocated the formation 
 of a universal language by the arbitrary adoption of 
 unmeaning sounds as substitutes for words, not know- 
 ing that the only language which can endure must have 
 its foundation laid in thought. 
 
THE BIBLE. 367 
 
 The perfect language is that which places every 
 symbol accurately upon its own thought, so that a paint- 
 ing of the natural object or physical phenomenon will 
 in all ages convey an exact revelation of the thought to 
 every man whose mind is capable of sympathising with 
 the mind of the painter. The Second Adam always 
 used the perfect language ; and thus Christianity 
 can be easily taught to people of every variety of 
 speech. 
 
 The supreme knowledge which every genuine philo- 
 sopher desires is to know himself; but a man cannot 
 really know himself without knowing his Creator. It 
 is only in proportion as we have capacity to know the 
 designer that we can know the work designed. A man 
 devoid of ability to learn mathematics could not possibly 
 know the mind of a mathematician or understand a 
 calculating machine ; and one who is too stupid to be 
 taught mechanics might stare for ever at a printing- 
 machine without seeing the mind of its designer as 
 revealed by the machine. No one could possibly have 
 discovered the nature and origin of man but a perfect 
 man ; for the thing designed cannot be known until its 
 archetypal idea is recognised, and to grasp the idea 
 of the perfect man a perfect mind was needed. Adam 
 asked himself why he had been created ; and the recog- 
 nition of the design was at the same time the recognition 
 of the Designer. 
 
 The depth of degradation to which mankind has fallen 
 is strikingly shown by the hopeless efforts of teachers of 
 great ability and eminence to discover the relations of 
 man to his environment. With the aid of all the accumu- 
 
368 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 lated knowledge of thousands of years, and even with 
 the truths taught by the Hebrews permeating literature, 
 they spend their lives in fruitless striving to discover 
 any meaning in life. The degenerated man cannot 
 know God by his own wisdom, and can only teach 
 truth regarding human nature when he has learned 
 fundamental principles from Adam. 
 
 The savage can never of himself take the first step 
 towards an analysis of his own mind, because he does 
 not know the Divine Mind. Those who have been 
 accustomed from infancy to enjoy the satisfaction con- 
 ferred by some knowledge of the revelation given by 
 Adam cannot imagine how hopelessly puzzling the 
 universe seems to an untutored native of any country 
 which has lost all ancient tradition ; and even the 
 greatest scholars, when they try to find their way with- 
 out depending on the Bible, manifest an agnosticism 
 and uncertainty which is painfully astounding. Every 
 man who has sound knowledge feels at home on 
 the earth, and is not the least puzzled or alarmed 
 by the various changes and re-arrangements which 
 his Father considers necessary in the management of 
 affairs. 
 
 A desire to study psychology and metaphysics is dis- 
 tinctive of the superior type of mind ; and those who 
 have no such desire may be regarded as mere human 
 animals that have not received the breath of spiritual 
 life. The animal man may emulate the ape in physical 
 dexterity, or the tiger in blood-thirstiness, or the bee 
 in the tendency to devote himself to the storing up of 
 wealth ; but in all that essentially distinguishes man 
 
THE BIBLE. 369 
 
 from the brutes he is lacking. Every child who is 
 taught the elements of Christianity learns to repeat 
 words which embody the most profound thoughts of 
 which man has ever been capable, and in the course of 
 years those words acquire more and more meaning to 
 the reflective mind. 
 
 Teachers of psychology do not agree in their views 
 of the elements forming the mind and the relations of 
 these elements to one another ; and metaphysicians are 
 apt to lose themselves among indefinite words. There 
 can be no scientific system of psychology, and therefore 
 no clear knowledge of God, except what is founded on 
 the teaching of Adam. A multitude of imperfect minds 
 would never agree as to what constitutes the perfect 
 mind, and could not conceive it without revelation by 
 a perfect man. 
 
 Adam gave mankind the foundation of all psychology 
 when he taught that the spirit inhabits the Garden ; 
 and that the mind upon which the fertility of the man 
 depends is composed of intellect, emotion, and will, 
 surrounded by memory, and indivisible in origin and 
 substance. This knowledge of the thing designed was 
 only obtained by knowing and interrogating the Designer. 
 We suffer much from the multitude of words we have 
 learned, so that it is difficult for us to get even a glimpse 
 of God as seen by Adam ; but solitude and meditation 
 may lift us somewhat out of the mass of litter in which 
 we stumble. Hosea lived in a time when words had 
 produced their effect in preventing thought, and he 
 remarked, " Israel hath forgotton his Maker and 
 buildeth temples." Adam had no temple or obtrusive 
 
 o.m. B B 
 
370 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 mortal to obstruct his communion with God ; and every 
 true prophet has to say in his heart 
 
 " Take not that vision from my ken ! 
 Oh, whatsoe'er may spoil or speed, 
 Help me to need no aid from men 
 That I may help such men as need ! * 
 
 Knowledge of himself came to Adam by communing 
 with his Creator ; and the fact that he was able to com- 
 mune with God proved that he was the child of God, 
 and that his mind was constituted in the likeness of the 
 Divine Mind. It was evidently of the utmost import- 
 ance to his descendants that the teaching of the perfect 
 man should be preserved, since all the efforts of the 
 fallen race could not have sufficed to regain the infallible 
 foundations if once they had been lost. All attempts to 
 gain wisdom must end in disappointment if the original 
 revelation is not known and accepted. Whatever 
 civilisation exists in any country is due to the pre- 
 servation of some of the theological teaching of Adam ; 
 and every nation and tribe deprived of all knowledge of 
 that teaching is proved by history to have sunk rapidly 
 to a state of hopeless savagery. 
 
 The Jew, the Christian, and the Moslem agree in 
 recognising the ancient Hebrews as the founders of 
 their theology, while the Brahmans accept the Vedas as 
 the source of their doctrine. What did the ancient 
 Hebrews mean when they spoke of God, and what did 
 the writers of the Vedas mean ? 
 
 The first mention of God in the Bible is as The 
 Elohim, with the ungrammatical peculiarity that the 
 
THE BIBLE. 371 
 
 noun is put in the plural form, while the verb is put 
 in the singular. The plural name is thus always 
 treated as referring to one person, as if we were to say, 
 "the judges is a wise counsellor." Why is there this 
 peculiarity ? What is the origin and meaning of the 
 word Elohim ? 
 
 It is said in Genesis, " In the beginning The Elohim 
 created the heavens and the earth " ; and The Elohim 
 is described as creating Adam and as talking with him. 
 The primitive man left no independent authority for 
 any local demon either in heaven or earth. The Elohim 
 was all in all. 
 
 A man with sound mind unoccupied by words, and 
 without artificial causes of distraction, would be 
 naturally conscious of the presence of his Creator. 
 Nothing would seem worthy of serious consideration 
 except as looked on from the standpoint of the Designer ; 
 and hence Adam would be frequently referring to God 
 in his conversations with Eve. How would he describe 
 God? 
 
 The primitive man, with his perfect mind, and with 
 no traditional words to express his thoughts, would 
 inevitably represent the Creator, the Giver of Life, in 
 such a way as to convey the idea of a breathing spirit. 
 The origin of the alphabet, and of all language, was 
 given by Adam when he first attempted to speak of 
 God to Eve ; for he simply breathed in a significant man- 
 ner to indicate breath, life, or spirit, and pointed upwards 
 and around with reverence as a deaf and dumb man will 
 do. Thus the letter A or E was originated by simple 
 expiration, 
 
 b b 2 
 
372 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 The mere breathing would convey an indefinite 
 impression of infinite life, whereas it was necessary 
 to speak of the Creator as a Person. The breathing 
 was therefore limited by bringing the tongue against 
 the roof of the mouth so as to produce the letter L. 
 God, the Creator, was thus called El. 
 
 The sound El, did not convey any idea of the nature 
 of God beyond that of His infinite power as Creator 
 and Ruler. It was necessary to express the fact that 
 Emotion is an essential element in the Divine Mind 
 as of the human ; and the natural expression of emotion 
 is by the sound represented by the letter O. The 
 symbol signifying the knowing consciousness is the 
 letter L ; and that signifying the feeling, desiring 
 element of the mind is the letter O. 
 
 The intelligent man who meditates on the elements 
 of the mind cannot help seeing that the intellect united 
 with emotion must do something, or decide upon some 
 action. Will is the essential product of intellect and 
 emotion ; and the Creator could never have created 
 anything without the exercise of Will. How was Adam 
 to describe the third element of the Divine Mind ? 
 
 A man may have the intelligence to design a work, 
 and the desire to perform it, but he must decidedly 
 express his determination to do it ; and fixed deter- 
 mination is naturally, and very curiously, shown by 
 shutting the lips firmly. Thus he concludes the 
 syllable ; and the conclusion of the syllable forms 
 the letter M. In the Divine Name the M signified 
 the Divine Will. The audible breathing was brought 
 to definite limit by the decisive closure of the lips. 
 
THE BIBLE. 373 
 
 Thus the mystic syllable, L O M, was formed to 
 represent the Divine Mind ; and, in the course of time, 
 it was translated as The Elohim. Since the Three 
 Symbols were employed to signify the Three Persons 
 in the Divine Mind, it was obviously necessary that the 
 verb following should be in the singular ; just as it would 
 be necessary to speak of a man as an individual, though 
 his mind is composed of intellect, emotion, and will. 
 
 Nothing is more wonderful in all history than the 
 care with which the Hebrews preserved the revelation 
 given by Adam. Even when the meaning of the original 
 was not comprehended, it was recognised that if the 
 teaching of the first two chapters of Genesis should be 
 lost mankind must inevitably sink to utter destruc- 
 tion. Country, and property, and life itself had to be 
 sacrificed by the custodians of the infallible revelation 
 rather than suffer its destruction or corruption. Yet 
 modern scholars, who owe everything to the Hebrews, 
 speak of them without reverence or even gratitude. 
 
 The Sacred Books of the East are founded upon the 
 teaching of Adam, but, owing to the absence of cen- 
 tral authority and responsibility, the tribes who wandered 
 to India and China permitted foolish commentators and 
 teachers to add their own fancies and theories ; so that 
 an enormous mass of confused and contradictory obser- 
 vations and discussions almost totally obscured the 
 original truth. God was with all who sought Him in 
 every nation ; but the Levites were more faithful than 
 the Brahmans, and allowed nothing to be added to the 
 sacred writings without solemnly consulting Jehovah. 
 The Hebrews knew that no man could see truth except 
 
374 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 when conscious of the inspiration of Jehovah. The 
 Brahmans ceased to worship Jehovah, so that they had 
 no prophets among them, and every writer depended 
 on himself, with the inevitable result of producing 
 confusion. 
 
 The Hebrew Scriptures begin by stating that L O M 
 created all things. The Sacred Books of the East begin 
 by saying, " Let a man worship the syllable A U M." 
 
 The importance attached to the syllable A U M in 
 the Vedas seems to be as puzzling to translators as 
 the meaning of the syllable L O M in the Bible. It is 
 plain that the two are essentially the same, and signify 
 the Divine Mind. 
 
 Monier Williams, in his little work on Hinduism, says 
 that the Yoga system has for its object the teaching of 
 the means by which the human soul may attain com- 
 plete union with the Universal Soul ; and that repetition 
 of the mystic monosyllable A U M is supposed to be 
 all-efficacious in giving knowledge of the Supreme, and 
 preventing the obstacles to Yoga. He adds, " The Yoga 
 system appears, in fact, to be a mere contrivance for 
 getting rid of all thought, or rather for concentrating 
 the mind with the utmost intensity upon nothing in 
 particular." 
 
 It is never safe to assume that a man does not him- 
 self know what he means because we are unable to 
 understand him. We may be ignorant or stupid. 
 Concentration of the thoughts upon God is the highest 
 act of intelligence, and is a source of delight so intense 
 that when once experienced there is nothing whatever 
 that seems of equal importance. 
 
THE BIBLE. 375 
 
 Max Miiller, in his introduction to the translation of 
 the Upanishad, proves that he had power to sympathise 
 with the devout Brahmans, and that he knew something 
 of what Goethe meant by saying that it is in the 
 Nothing we must find the All. The physical symbol 
 of the A U M may be said to be the ether ; and how 
 many even among the greatest teachers of science have 
 ever abstracted thought sufficiently from the material 
 to grasp in imagination any notion of that which is 
 spoken of as the source of all matter and of all force ; 
 but which can neither be weighed, nor measured, nor 
 limited in any way ? It is necessary to get into the 
 region of Nothingness before we can think of the ether, 
 the vibration of which is supposed to produce in us the 
 sensation of light ; and yet A U M is behind the ether, 
 and employs it as His agent. 
 
 Max Miiller says, " The Highest Self, which had 
 become to the ancient Brahmans the goal of all their 
 mental efforts, was looked upon at the same time as the 
 starting-point of all phenomenal existence, the root of 
 the world, the only thing that could really be said to 
 be, to be real and true." The Bible teaches the same 
 of L O M. 
 
 The highest aim of the Brahman of the Upanishad 
 was to recognise his own self as a mere limited reflec- 
 tion of the Highest Self, and through that knowledge 
 to return to it, and regain his identity with it. What 
 is this but the teaching that man was made in the 
 Image of God ? In the Psalms we find it stated, " I 
 have said ye are gods (elohim), and ye are all the 
 children of the Most Highest." God, the L O M, is in 
 
376 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 the congregation of the lorn, and is the Judge of the lorn. 
 The Ideal Mind is worshipped by the imperfect human 
 mind. The finite mind worships the Infinite Mind. 
 
 A U M is to the Brahmans the essence of everything, 
 the living principle of everything. Paul says that in 
 God, the L O M of the Hebrews, we live and move and 
 have our being. By the Brahman, he who meditates on 
 A U M is said to meditate on the spirit of man as iden- 
 tical with the Infinite Spirit. All sacrifice and ceremonies 
 are of no avail in the end, and knowledge of A U M can 
 alone produce true salvation or true immortality. This 
 is the teaching of the Vedas, and is very different from 
 what is generally supposed to be Hindoo dependence on 
 priests and ceremonies. It is the teaching of Adam 
 which is repeated by Moses and Christ. Only the Vedas 
 speak of God as A U M, and the Hebrews as L O M ; 
 the difference being due to the accident of the neglect 
 of a teacher to make the closure of a vowel sound with 
 sufficient distinctness to form the L. Christ warned 
 his disciples to let no man nor ceremony come 
 between the individual and Jehovah, and to call 
 no man a spiritual father ; though we owe the deepest 
 gratitude to teachers who help us to know God. 
 
 There is no possible way by which God could have 
 revealed Himself to Adam alone as Jehovah, the Loving 
 Saviour. The normal man is devoid of fear under ordin- 
 ary circumstances. If God had brought terrible crushing 
 calamities upon him in order to evoke gratitude, the man 
 would have shrunk from his Creator as from a capricious 
 tyrant. Eve alone could reveal the Creator as Jehovah. 
 When the man stood in blank despair, unable to give 
 
THE BIBLE. 377 
 
 any help in her extremity to the woman on whom all 
 his earthly hopes and affections were centred, her 
 agonised cry went up to Heaven ; but she did not utter 
 the Mystic Syllable revealed by the calm inquiring 
 spirit of Adam. Her cry was Ye-O-A ; and women, in 
 their hour of dire uncertainty and fearful hope, still utter 
 the same cry to God when free from the unnatural 
 restraint imposed by conventional hypocrites and artificial 
 surroundings. 
 
 The cry ye-o-a was followed by the birth of a son ; and 
 in their grateful adoration of the Author of life the joyful 
 parents cherished as sacred the cry which had brought 
 them comfort and blessing. L O M was regarded as 
 Jehovah, the Personal Saviour and Comforter. Every 
 true man feels by instinct that the cry of a woman 
 in travail is something to be kept sacred from vulgar 
 comment; and the ancient Hebrews when reading the 
 Scriptures always refrained from attempting to utter the 
 word Jehovah. It is profanity to attempt to limit by 
 conventional pronunciation the cry of a suffering soul 
 to God ; yet modern teachers discuss whether Javeh is 
 not the proper spelling ! 
 
 Man will most readily worship The Elohim as Power, 
 Intellect, Wisdom, Justice ; but feels his pride mortified 
 when he has to confess his need by worshipping Jehovah, 
 the Merciful. The appeal for mercy and help seems to 
 be wrung from him against his will. Woman seems to 
 feel that it is her especial prerogative to be the revealer 
 of Jehovah, and the worship which seems so difficult 
 and distasteful to a strong man satisfied with himself is 
 easy and delightful to the noblest woman. When a 
 
37$ THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 woman does not worship God as the Personal Saviour, 
 she is certain to be a curse instead of a blessing to any 
 man who trusts to her for assistance and comfort in his 
 distress. 
 
 The first step towards the formation of the alphabet 
 would never have been taken, and there could never have 
 been any knowledge of theology, or law, or religion, or 
 science, or art, if the first man and woman had not been 
 created perfect, so that they might be able to reveal the 
 true foundations upon which their fallen descendants 
 could with safety build. Until he knows himself as the 
 child of God man not only remains on the level of the 
 brutes, but has a perversity of disposition which leads 
 to degradation and internecine warfare, so that his 
 extinction is inevitable. The brute creation is preserved 
 by the instinct which guards the purity of the females, 
 whereas the human female becomes the destroyer of the 
 race. Eve must either be the revealer of Jehovah or the 
 serpent poisoning the springs of life. 
 
 The animal can never know its self, since it has no 
 spirit. Man must know his self, or die. Knowledge of 
 himself can only be in proportion to knowledge of his 
 Creator ; and the Creator can only be revealed in a Per- 
 fect Man. Each degraded man has his own degraded 
 conceptions, and no agreement as to what is best is 
 possible ; but each has sufficient of the original insight 
 to enable him to recognise the Ideal when revealed by 
 Adam. Each must necessarily see the Ideal in an 
 imperfect manner, according to his own peculiar defects 
 and his limited field of vision ; yet all who are willing to 
 learn from the Bible can be shown sufficient of the 
 
THE BIBLE. 37Q 
 
 revealed Perfect Form to guide them in harmonious 
 work for the restoration of Eden. 
 
 " Holy Bible, book Divine, 
 Precious treasure, thou art mine : 
 Mine, to tell me whence I came ; 
 Mine, to teach me what I am." 
 
3o 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, THE ARCHETYPAL MAN. 
 
 " Thus saith Jehovah, Stand ye in the ways and 
 see, and ask for the old paths, and walk therein, and 
 ye shall find rest for your souls." 
 
 What are the old paths ? What is the old faith ? 
 What was the primitive religion ? Why should the 
 old paths be better than the new ? If humanity has 
 been evolving throughout the ages towards a higher 
 state it must be folly to look back to the ancients for 
 wisdom and guidance. 
 
 Jeremiah lived two thousand five hundred years ago ; 
 and yet he regarded the Jews of his day as a degenerate 
 people, and maintained that their only hope lay in 
 returning to the paths of their forefathers, and in striving 
 to uphold the moral standard of primitive times. If 
 man has been groping his way from ancient darkness 
 to modern light, what value has the moral standard of 
 primitive times ? 
 
 What is meant by a moral standard ? Can a standard 
 be the result of evolution or growth ? Can it vary with 
 circumstances ? 
 
 The moral standard of any people is the expression of 
 their notion of the Ideal Man the Archetypal Man 
 the Formal Cause. It is an attempt to reply to the 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 381 
 
 question, What constitutes the Perfect Man ? Despots 
 may set up arbitrary moral standards, and nations as 
 well as individuals often regulate their conduct by 
 apparent expediency ; but their plans do not give rest 
 to the soul because they do not satisfy the instinctive 
 idea of perfection. 
 
 All civilisation depends on recognition of the Arche- 
 typal Man, and on the worship of the Creator as God of 
 Truth and Right. It will be found that knowledge of 
 the Archetypal Man has been the essential basis of 
 religion in every civilised land ever since the first dawn 
 of history. 
 
 How to find rest for the soul is the most pressing 
 question for every man who has awoke to human 
 consciousness and longings ; and teachers who try to 
 satisfy the mind with knowledge and theories which 
 cannot give rest to the soul are like parents who offer 
 their children empty husks instead of bread. Even 
 with all the scientific and literary treasures of the ages 
 there are modern philosophers who cannot find rest for 
 the soul, and who are quite puzzled as to whence they 
 have come and whither they are going. 
 
 Man cannot find rest for his soul until he knows 
 his origin and his destiny his Formal Cause and his 
 Final Cause. How could primitive man learn his origin 
 and nature without any of the accumulated knowledge 
 which modern scholars possess ? Yet the Hebrew 
 prophet was certain that primitive man had the clearest 
 vision of the Creator and the Archetypal Man. What 
 is the explanation ? 
 
 Every sane man has, as an essential part of his nature, 
 
382 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 the idea of perfection ; and it would be no less absurd 
 to try to discuss the nature of a human race without 
 brains than to discuss the nature of a human race with- 
 out perfect ideals. The lowest savage, as well as the 
 most eminent scholar and the wisest philosopher, has 
 the ideas of the straight line, and the circle, and the 
 sphere, and the square, which he knows to be absolute 
 and incapable of change. The circle cannot be evolved 
 or be subject to evolution it is the same yesterday, to- 
 day, and for ever; yet circles may be so multiplied, 
 and connected, and intermingled with distorted forms, 
 that a distinct view of a perfect figure may be almost 
 impossible. 
 
 Every sane man has, as an essential part of his nature, 
 the idea of a Perfect Man, who can no more be subject 
 to evolution than a circle ; and it is this vision of the 
 Ideal which inspires the artist, provides every seeker of 
 excellence with his hero, and determines all ethics, all 
 morals, and all religion. No good desire, no noble 
 aspiration, no thought of improvement is possible 
 except as the result of some vision of the Perfect Man ; 
 and no knowledge of defect or sin is possible except by 
 comparison with Him. The Light lighteth every man 
 that cometh into the world ; and yet words may be so 
 multiplied, and ideas so indefinite, and thoughts so 
 confused, that there is no clear perception of the Ideal 
 Man ; and then every worker follows his own crooked 
 devices. 
 
 Primitive man had no accumulation of words, no con- 
 ventional impediments, no multiplicity of theories, no 
 competitive struggles to distract his attention and 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 383 
 
 prevent calm contemplation of the phenomena of mind 
 and the mysteries of being. Consequently he saw the 
 circle as an essential part of himself; and he saw the 
 Ideal Man with equal certainty. As he recognised the 
 defects of the circles he tried to form by comparison 
 with the eternal circle in his mind, so he recognised 
 all deviations from the perfect moral standard by com- 
 parison with the eternal Ideal Man reflected in his own 
 calm, truthful soul. 
 
 Man sets out on his journey through life with certain 
 endowments, and has to test all elements of experience 
 by the ideals already existing within him. The ideals 
 are not the product of education or experience ; yet no 
 one is conscious of their existence without experience. 
 It is by trying to make a circle that a man learns the 
 existence in him of an ideal circle ; and the more 
 strenuous the efforts of an artist to attain perfection, 
 and the greater the difficulties against which he 
 struggles, the more vivid becomes the perception of the 
 perfect form. Exercise is necessary for the develop- 
 ment of faculties; but fundamental principles do not 
 depend on the ability to recognise them. Whether an 
 object is perpendicular, or a moral standard true, is 
 determined by eternal principles and innate powers. A 
 lie is always a lie, however it may be concealed by words. 
 The First Adam was compelled to look straight into his 
 own soul at the naked thoughts. 
 
 Professor Steindorff, in his lectures on the Religion of 
 the Ancient Egyptians, says : " There is hardly an 
 Egyptian text that does not contain some statement 
 bearing on ancient Egyptian religion. Every wall of 
 
384 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 a temple or tomb, every memorial stone, nearly every 
 papyrus, even such simple objects as limestone frag- 
 ments or potsherds covered with writing all give us 
 help of greater or less importance towards under- 
 standing the religious thoughts and feelings of the 
 Egyptian people. It may be said boldly that quite nine- 
 tenths of the Egyptian writings preserved to us were 
 devoted to some religious purpose, and that of the 
 remaining tenth the bulk contains more or less 
 information on religion." 
 
 There are some who form their notions of primitive 
 religion from the superstitions, and idolatries, and con- 
 tradictory theories, and hopeless uncertainties of the 
 modern world. The degraded savage is regarded as the 
 normal man; and the German professor whose spiritual 
 senses are atrophied is listened to as an infallible 
 teacher. Every new discovery of ancient Egyptian 
 wisdom points to an original revelation of the origin 
 and nature of man of his relation to his Creator, and 
 to his fellow, and to the world around him given by a 
 teacher who had absolute certainty in his knowledge of 
 God, and in his knowledge of the Ideal Man. Provi- 
 dence took care to preserve records sufficient to save 
 the simple worshipper from confusion, and to give the 
 full assurance of understanding to the devout student of 
 history. 
 
 Among the treasures unearthed in Egypt is the work 
 translated under the title " The Book of the Dead," 
 but which was known to the ancients as " Chapters of 
 Coming Forth by Day." Death was to the ancient 
 Egyptians the passage into clear light, when every deed 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 385 
 
 done in the body is made manifest to the conscience, and 
 the heart is weighed in the Great Balance to determine 
 whether the individual is worthy or unworthy of eternal 
 life. 
 
 Primitive man was accustomed to think before speak- 
 ing; and the result was that he had no doubts regarding 
 such subjects as eternal life and future judgment. He 
 had no discussions regarding a moral standard ; since 
 he had always in his mind the vision of the Balance, 
 which remains a Balance for all eternity. The Perfect 
 Man sat watching the weighing of the heart, so that 
 there was no possibility of mistake. 
 
 There is much satisfaction in the possession of definite 
 knowledge of the moral and religious teaching which 
 men received some thousands of years before the events 
 commonly described as pre-historic. As mankind 
 degenerated spiritual insight decayed, and the funda- 
 mental truths were buried under a mass of foolish 
 inventions made by ignorant priests. Dr. Wallis 
 Budge, in the preface to his translation of " The Book 
 of the Dead," remarks that the scribes and sages of 
 the 19th Dynasty had as much difficulty as we have in 
 reading certain hieratic signs, and were as undecided as 
 we are about the transcription of them. The " old 
 paths " became so choked up with weeds and rubbish 
 that men doubted whether they ever existed, and 
 fancied themselves the originators of wisdom, though 
 they were unable to comprehend the thoughts of 
 their forefathers. Now the rubbish is being cleared 
 away ; and it is seen that the most plain and 
 definite moral standard, with the most absolute 
 
 o.m. c c 
 
386 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 certainty in pure religion, is found in the most ancient 
 records. 
 
 Who is the author, and what is the date of " The 
 Book of the Dead " ? No man is ever mentioned as 
 author or reviser. It was handed down by oral tradi- 
 tion. When investigation is carried back to an apparent 
 beginning there is no claim to originality, but the simple 
 statement that the teaching was found inscribed on 
 stone. 
 
 Dr. Budge says : " The 64th chapter is probably 
 one of the oldest, and two versions of it seem to have 
 existed in the earliest times." Both versions occur on 
 a coffin of the nth Dynasty ; and in that Dynasty it 
 was believed that the chapter might even be as ancient 
 as the 1st Dynasty. The date assigned by Dr. Budge 
 is 4266 B.C.; but that is only the date at which it is said 
 to have been discovered inscribed on stone in the ruins 
 of a temple. " There is little doubt that the chapter 
 was looked upon as an abridgment of all the ' Chapters 
 of Coming Forth by Day,' and that it had a value 
 equivalent to them all." 
 
 What is this primitive teaching regarding the Creator, 
 the Perfect Man, and the Moral Standard ? Does it 
 record the worship of mountains and trees, or of sun, 
 moon and stars, or of demons ? Is it as hopelessly 
 indefinite and absurd as the speculations of modern 
 atheists or materialists? 
 
 The beginning of the chapter is: " I am Yesterday, 
 To-day, and To-morrow, and I have the power to be 
 born a second time ; I am the divine hidden Soul who 
 createth the gods, and who giveth sepulchral meals unto 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 387 
 
 the denizens of the Tuat (underworld), Amentet, and 
 heaven." 
 
 Who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, 
 to whom all time l# s Now ? Who supervises the souls 
 of the dead, and of the living, and rules in heaven ? 
 Primitive man had the loftiest conception of the Creator 
 as Governor and Judge of all ; but in the course of ages 
 degradation became so extreme that beetles, and apes, 
 and trees were regarded as sacred, until now men place 
 themselves under the protection of scapulars and old 
 horseshoes. 
 
 The great aim of the primitive worshipper was to 
 become so like the Archetypal Man as to be granted 
 the same Name after death. All religious aspiration 
 had for its aim the attainment of harmony with God; 
 and men studied the nature and qualities of the Perfect 
 Man ; so that when the soul should appear before the 
 Judge it would be familiar with the questions to which 
 answers would be demanded at the weighing of the 
 heart. Curiously enough, the soul of the man is usually 
 represented as accompanied by that of his wife ; and 
 the testimony of the wife to the virtues of her husband 
 might be evidence of considerable importance. 
 
 Primitive religion takes as a matter beyond any 
 possibility of doubt that the Creator made man perfect, 
 and requires him to be perfect. The Perfect Man is the 
 man in harmony with the Creator; and this assumes 
 that the Creator is known. Steindorff refers to the 
 ancient Egyptian legend of a beautiful chest which was 
 to be given to him who could lie in it and fit it exactly, 
 and which fitted no one but Osiris. Only the perfect 
 
 c c 2 
 
388 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 figure will fit the perfect matrix ; and if the figure is 
 perfect, the matrix that produced it must also be perfect. 
 The Archetypal Man is the revelation of the Creator ; 
 and may say, " He that hath seen Me hath seen the 
 Father." 
 
 Primitive man was like a child unable to read, but 
 without any doubt whatever as to the identity of his 
 mother who fed him. Modern professional theologians 
 are like clever strangers attempting to write a description 
 of the mother from the best historical records. 
 
 Dr. Budge says of the primitive Egyptian : "Although 
 his ideas were very definite as to the reality of a future 
 existence, I think that he had formulated few details 
 about it, and that he had no idea as to where or how it 
 was to be enjoyed." Whether the most eminent 
 European scholars have formulated details of their 
 future existence would be an interesting subject for 
 inquiry. The Egyptian had perfectly clear ideas of 
 the conditions necessary to secure future bliss by assimi- 
 lating the nature of Osiris so thoroughly that he might 
 partake of His character, and, consequently, be called 
 by His Name. 
 
 According to the ancient teaching the Perfect Man 
 cannot die. Osiris was said to have been slain and cut 
 into fragments ; yet he gathered together the fragments 
 and rose triumphant from the dead. Those who passed 
 into the presence of Osiris were certain to rise again 
 from the dead, free from all defect, and perfect in 
 every respect, because Osiris had overcome death and 
 maintained His perfection. 
 
 An innumerable number of circles may be broken, 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 389 
 
 yet the idea of a perfect circle remains unchanged for 
 ever ; and so it is with mankind. Death has no power 
 over the Archetypal Man. The Perfect is always living 
 and present for those who strive towards perfection. 
 Primitive worshippers would have appreciated better 
 than many Christians the spiritual meaning of the 
 lines 
 
 11 Mighty Victim from the sky, 
 Hell's fierce powers beneath Thee lie ; 
 Thou hast conquered in the fight ; 
 Thou hast brought us life and light ; 
 Now no more can death appal, 
 Now no more the grave enthral ; 
 Thou hast opened Paradise, 
 And in Thee Thy saints shall rise." 
 
 Paul had the same clear vision of the Son of God as 
 was enjoyed by the primitive teachers; and so he 
 declares: "I count all things to be loss for the 
 excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord : 
 for Whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count 
 them but dung that I may gain Christ, and be found in 
 Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even 
 that which is of the law, but that which is through 
 faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by 
 faith : that I may know Him, and the power of His 
 resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, 
 becoming conformed unto His death ; if by any means 
 I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead." 
 
 What constituted the Perfect Man, or the Formal 
 Cause ? What was the Moral Standard of the Supreme 
 Judge ? What did the Creator demand that man 
 
390 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OE MAN. 
 
 should do and be ? What did the ancients believe 
 regarding the moral nature of the Creator ? 
 
 At page 13 of Dr. Budge's translation of " The Book 
 of the Dead" it is said : "Thoth, the judge of Right 
 and Truth of the great company of the gods who are 
 in the presence of Osiris, saith : ' Hear ye this judgment. 
 The heart of Osiris hath in very truth been weighed, 
 and his soul hath stood as a witness for him ; it hath 
 been found true by trial in the Great Balance. There 
 hath not been found any wickedness in him ; he hath 
 not wasted the offerings in the temples ; he hath not 
 done harm by his deeds ; and he hath uttered no evil 
 reports while he was upon the earth.' " 
 
 Those in search of a moral standard may find it 
 sufficient to be able to say truly that they are free 
 from all wickedness, that they have never neglected 
 public worship, and that neither their deeds nor their 
 words have ever been harmful. 
 
 The ancient worshipper had to aim at being able to 
 say truly after death : " Behold I am in thy presence, 
 
 lord of Amentet. There is no sin in my body. I 
 have not spoken that which is not true knowingly, nor 
 have I done aught with a false heart. Grant thou that 
 
 1 may be like unto those favoured ones who are in thy 
 following, and that I may be an Osiris greatly favoured 
 of the beautiful god, and beloved of the lord of the 
 world." 
 
 Some writers describe primitive religion as Nature 
 worship. It is forgotten that words had to be invented ; 
 and that worshippers had to employ elementary symbols 
 to express their ideas. The " Hymn to Ra when he 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 39I 
 
 riseth " is supposed to be addressed simply to the 
 material sun in exaggerated terms of praise. Yet in 
 this hymn there occurs the expression, "thou King of 
 Right and Truth." Does a modern idolater see in a 
 horseshoe or a scapular the King of Right and Truth ? 
 
 In an ancient papyrus which deals with the firm 
 establishment of the rule of Osiris there is the state- 
 ment, " I am Thoth, the perfect scribe, whose hands 
 are pure, . . . the scribe of Right and Truth, who 
 abominateth sin. ... I am the Lord of Right and 
 Truth, who trieth the Right and Truth for the gods, 
 the judge of words in their essence." 
 
 What is it to have pure hands ? Primitive man 
 regarded the Creator as abominating sin. What is sin? 
 The man who would please God, and become an 
 Osiris, must be free from sin. Can a materialist, or a 
 Darwinian, know what sin is ? 
 
 A writer recently asserted that there is no proof that 
 the ethical principles have existed effectively in the past 
 except in connection with Christian doctrine ! Ancient 
 ethics need to be taught effectively in modern schools. 
 The primitive Egyptian kept before his mind the 
 thought of the Creator as Judge, and pictured his 
 naked soul standing in the Judgment Hall to give an 
 account of the deeds done in the body. The Perfect 
 Man sat in the background, so that the soul could not 
 be in any doubt as to the justice of the judgment. Any 
 deviation from the Perfect Man was clearly seen as sin. 
 
 The Heart that is Righteous and Sinless is said in 
 "The Book of the Dead" to make a declaration of 
 positive virtues and duties performed, such as : "I 
 
392 TtlE ORIGIN ANb MANURE OF MAN. 
 
 live upon Right and Truth, and I feed upon Right and 
 Truth. I have given bread to the hungry man, and 
 water to the thirsty man, and apparel to the naked 
 man, and a boat to the shipwrecked mariner. I am 
 clean of mouth and clean of hands. I have done that 
 which is right and true for the Lord of Right and 
 Truth. There is no single member of mine which 
 lacketh Right and Truth." The foregoing sentences 
 occur among many others that are obscure in meaning 
 owing to the figurative language and the use of 
 personifying symbols, which further knowledge and 
 insight will, no doubt, make clear. 
 
 Religious teaching was not neglected in the primitive 
 schools ; for religion, as with the Hebrews, was the 
 essential business of life. What position would a soul 
 be in if it knew nothing of the questions to be answered 
 at the weighing of the heart ? Among the sentences 
 given in the 125th chapter are the following : " I have 
 maintained Right and Truth ; I have not repulsed God 
 in His manifestations. I am pure. I am pure. I am 
 pure. I am pure. I have not wrought evil. I Jiave 
 had no knowledge of worthless men. I have not 
 caused pain. I have made no man to suffer hunger. 
 I have done no murder. I have made no one to weep. 
 I have not committed fornication. I have not defrauded 
 the temples of their oblations. I have neither added to 
 nor filched away any land. I have not encroached 
 upon the fields of others. I have not added to the 
 weights of the scales. I have not mis-read the pointer 
 of the scales. I have not defrauded the oppressed one 
 of his property. I have not ill-treated servants. I have 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 393 
 
 not oppressed the members of my family. I have not 
 carried away the milk from the mouths of the children. 
 I have not acted deceitfully. I have not committed 
 theft. I have not purloined the things that belong unto 
 God. I have not uttered falsehood. I have not com- 
 mitted any sin against purity. I have not defiled the 
 wife of a man. I have not been a man of anger. I 
 have not stirred up strife. I have not judged hastily. 
 I have not multiplied my speech overmuch. I have not 
 behaved with insolence. I have not sought for distinc- 
 tions. I have not increased my wealth except with such 
 things as are justly my own possessions." 
 
 The adoption of the moral standard of six thousand 
 years ago might cause consternation in modern society. 
 A general confession of depravity seems to impart a 
 feeling of self-satisfaction without convincing an indi- 
 vidual of particular sin ; and it is gratifying to know 
 that all alike are miserable offenders and wretched 
 sinners. A more direct heart-searching might result if 
 worship always began with a prayer for all the liars 
 present. Primitive man had the picture of the Just 
 Judge ; modern man thinks only of the Good Shepherd. 
 
 With the multiplication of words there has arisen a 
 confused notion that religion and ethics may somehow 
 exist separately. The ancients could see clearly that 
 both depend upon the recognition of the Perfect Man. 
 Religion is the attempt to become like the Archetypal 
 Man, and to find a means of satisfying the Creator. 
 Morality can have no meaning except to those who 
 recognise the Supreme Judge with the Great Balance, 
 comparing the soul with the Ideal Man. 
 
394 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 The most striking difference between the Old Faith 
 and the Modern is the importance given to truthfulness. 
 There was not the slightest hope for the liar. He who 
 would obtain any glimpse of the Archetypal Man must 
 love Truth before all things. According to the Old 
 Faith, the Jew on appearing in the Judgment Hall will 
 not find the important question to be, Have you kept the 
 Sabbath ? or, Have you eaten pork ? but the Voice will 
 thunder in his ears, Have you been a liar ? The Hindu 
 will not be asked anything about his ablutions or his 
 penances, but must give a straightforward answer to the 
 question, Have you been a liar ? Christians will not be 
 asked, Have you always celebrated the Lord's Supper 
 before breakfast, or Have you received absolution from 
 a priest ? They will find it more important to have 
 supported the truthful, and given honour to the upright. 
 
 At a numerously attended company meeting held in 
 the City of London, in April, 1906, the chairman, in 
 referring to a speech made by the mover of the principal 
 resolution, said very emphatically, " That was a lie ; 
 
 and knew it was a lie." Nobody seemed to be 
 
 shocked or surprised ; and at the close of the meeting 
 the man accused of being a liar was talking to the 
 chairman as if nothing offensive had been said of him. 
 That circumstance illustrates the enormous gap between 
 the primitive and the modern moral standards. To the 
 ancients a murder might have seemed of less consequence 
 than a lie, since a murder might be due to an outburst 
 of passion, producing temporary loss of self-control, or 
 might even be an act of justice ; whereas a lie, unless 
 told under the influence of fear, would be proof of 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 39$ 
 
 depravity of nature, destructive of confidence between 
 man and man, and utterly repulsive to the Creator. 
 
 The citizens of the United States of America have a 
 general belief that they act according to a higher ethical 
 standard than the inhabitants of the earth possessed six 
 thousand years ago; or, in other words that they have 
 a higher and clearer conception of the Archetypal Man, 
 and of the Creator. The churches of America may give 
 much attention to denunciations of polygamy and of 
 indulgence in alcohol; they may refuse to have fellowship 
 with men who smoke tobacco or opium, or who have 
 only been sprinkled in baptism ; they may be very 
 punctilious in observing fasts and ceremonies ; yet they 
 do not adopt the primitive teaching, which would 
 require each member to say, "I have not been a liar; 
 I have not acted deceitfully; I have acted uprightly." 
 
 The ancient Egyptians were a simple people. A rich 
 manufacturer employing his wealth and power to crush 
 a poorer man, and so to starve his children, would have 
 been seen as a murderous robber attacking a weak way- 
 farer and stripping him naked. Primitive man could 
 not have recognised Right and Truth in the English 
 ethical code, which permits a thief and swindler to 
 become rich by crime ; and which has no punishment 
 for the man who lives in luxury at the expense of honest 
 shopkeepers and merchants, and then becomes bankrupt. 
 In England a thief may amass thousands of pounds by 
 his thieving ; then, if convicted, he is kept comfortably 
 in prison at the expense of the honest workers, and at 
 the expiration of a few months or years his friends meet 
 him at the prison door with a carriage, and he retires 
 
396 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 to a mansion to enjoy his wealth. An honest man will 
 work for years in exile from all friends, and will endure 
 far greater hardships than the criminal in prison, in order 
 to save a few hundred pounds. The primitive legislator 
 would have taken care that the criminal who had 
 acquired wealth at the cost of a term of imprisonment 
 should begin life again as poor as the poorest honest 
 worker. There was great simplicity in the ethical 
 standard that was illustrated by the Balance placed in 
 front of the Ideal Man. 
 
 The great danger that threatens the British Empire is 
 not alcohol, nor consumption, but it is the liar. In 
 India at the present moment the cowardly liar sits in 
 safety while fomenting discord that may bring ruin and 
 death upon industrious communities; and modern senti- 
 mentality forbids his prompt execution. Immediately 
 on the conclusion of every war, and if possible before the 
 outbreak of the war, an international tribunal ought to 
 demand the publication of all official papers relating to 
 the cause, and the public examination of every editor 
 who assisted to promote strife. Then any one found 
 guilty of causing the war by lies ought to be hanged. 
 That is the true Peace Conference needed. What liars 
 caused the Franco- German war? How many Russian 
 politicians, editors, and officials would have been 
 executed for causing the war with Japan ? The liar is 
 the worst murderer, since his victims are a multitude. 
 The timely execution of twenty liars before the last Boer 
 War would have saved many thousand honest men who 
 were murdered by them. Such an impartial tribunal 
 after Majuba would have demanded the publication 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 397 
 
 of all the correspondence of Queen Victoria relating 
 to the annexation of the Transvaal, and would have 
 placed Gladstone and Chamberlain on trial for making 
 promises when out of office that they broke when in 
 power. There would have been no second Boer War. 
 When a wealthy liar with command of newspapers and 
 clever writers attacks by lies an individual or a State, 
 the result may be hopeless ruin to the weak, and, if the 
 object of attack is strong enough to defeat the liar there 
 is probably no punishment for the criminal but a fine. 
 The ancient just ruler would have demanded the destruc- 
 tion of such a liar, and the confiscation of his property. 
 
 The influence of theory and prejudice in obscuring 
 truth and distorting facts has always been one of the 
 chief causes of erroneous teaching and sectarian strife. 
 The Book of Job has been recently translated by a dis- 
 tinguished scholar, who says of the subject of that great 
 philosophical treatise: "This question struck at the 
 root of the ethics and religion of the time. It was all 
 the more pressing too that the faith of those days no 
 longer childlike as of yore, and as yet unleavened by the 
 hope of life beyond the grave was unable to bear the 
 stress brought by the daily spectacle of unmerited 
 wrongs that wring the heart, and of undeserved 
 prosperity which demoralises the soul." 
 
 How could a clever scholar make such a stupendous 
 blunder as to fancy that men in the days of Job had 
 not hope of a life beyond the grave ? Let anyone try 
 to imagine how long it is since Job is supposed to have 
 lived, and then try to imagine how long it is since 
 "The Book of the Dead" was written. Job could 
 
39^ THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 look back to "The Book of the Dead " as we look back 
 to the writings of Plato ; and this book proves that 
 men never had more absolute certainty of life beyond 
 the grave, or a more definite conception of ethics and 
 of the Final Judgment, than they had thousands of 
 years before Job was born. The modern scholar had 
 lived among words, and had been infected by the theory 
 of Darwin ; so that he fancied he must be capable of 
 more profound thought than his ancestors because he 
 had inherited a larger collection of words. 
 
 The present generation has great need to learn what 
 the primitive teacher meant when he said that God is 
 " Judge of words in their essence." He that would be 
 perfect had to be able to say, " I have not multiplied 
 words overmuch." Children are now taught to repeat 
 words without any notion of the essence of them, and 
 writers are often supposed to give evidence of superior 
 mental capacity and knowledge when they are able to 
 pile words upon words in ornamental exuberance. 
 Little attention is given by preachers to the warning, 
 " I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall 
 speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of 
 judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, 
 and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." The 
 words here spoken of are not the mere conventional 
 sounds employed in any language ; they are words in 
 their essence. Primitive man was a thinker. 
 
 The greatest invention of all ages that of language 
 was developed slowly, since the difficulties were 
 enormous. How was a primitive teacher to express the 
 most important ideas clearly and correctly, so that 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 399 
 
 others could not mistake his meaning ? He had to 
 study words in their essence ; and all who wished to 
 understand him had to study words in their essence. 
 
 Nature provides symbols that never change, and that 
 cannot be affected by any theories. These symbols 
 appeal to all mankind, from the first human being who 
 was created to the last who shall be born ; and Free- 
 masonry can appeal to men of every race and language 
 when it teaches ethics by the level, and the plumb, and 
 the square, and the compasses, and the balance. Thus 
 Freemasonry gives the elementary teaching of humanity 
 which every child ought to learn ; but this had to be 
 supplemented by sounds that convey meaning to the 
 ear, and by pictures, and ideograms, and letters, which 
 may instruct through the eye. The Chinese written 
 language still consists of symbols that signify ideas ; 
 and a lifetime of serious thought is needed to produce 
 an educated Chinese, who studies words in their 
 essence. 
 
 There is good reason for believing that man was first 
 placed upon the earth in the neighbourhood of the 
 Euphrates, and recent excavations seem to prove that 
 men of the highest intelligence resided in that 
 amazingly fertile valley at an earlier date than any 
 ascribed to the primitive Egyptians ; but, for so far, 
 there is more important information derived from the 
 Egyptian than the Babylonian writings regarding 
 religion, or the notion formed of the Perfect Man. 
 
 Students who would understand primitive religion 
 must try to invent a language for themselves, so as 
 to gain some notion of the difficulties of the early 
 
400 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 teachers. The Babylonians are often supposed to 
 have worshipped the sun, and moon, and other 
 material objects ; yet an ancient Babylonian hymn 
 is addressed to the "long-suffering father, full of 
 forgiveness, whose hands uphold the lives of man- 
 kind." Is it likely that the worshipper meant the 
 material moon ? 
 
 Those who have no spiritual sense are apt to fancy 
 that all men are as blind as themselves ; and no con- 
 fidence exceeds that of ignorance. There were clever 
 men who were confident that the Babylonian inscrip- 
 tions on rocks were marks made by worms ; and other 
 clever men maintained that the Japanese have no belief 
 in the spirit world, or a future state, though no nation 
 was ever more thoroughly imbued with the religious 
 spirit. How could primitive men express their abstract 
 ideas ? When we say that thought is clear, or that wit 
 is sparkling, we are speaking as the ancients spoke, only 
 in a more clouded manner. They had to picture the 
 luminary. 
 
 Materialists are unable to distinguish between the 
 symbol and the spiritual thing signified ; and idolatry 
 results. The primitive father attempted to teach his 
 children his certainty of belief in a future state, and in 
 the communion of saints, by placing food and drink 
 beside the grave, and by treating the spirits of the dead 
 as if still in the body. Blind modern writers suppose 
 that the ancients did not distinguish the spiritual from 
 the material body. To the primitive man the spiritual 
 was the real ; and the present life was only a brief 
 period in which to prepare for future existence. The 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 40I 
 
 puzzle was how to teach the children without elaborate 
 language. 
 
 Clear spiritual vision recognises the elements of mind 
 in the Creative Intelligence ; but how is the seer to tell 
 his children anything of his knowledge ? A Name is 
 given to the Creator as the Supreme Intelligence ; but 
 a Name has also to be given to intellect, and to emotion, 
 and to will, and to imagination, and to memory, and to 
 God acting as Judge, and to God acting as Saviour, 
 and to God acting as Guide, and to many other aspects 
 of the Divine activity. How is a translator to learn the 
 fulness of the idea intended to be expressed by the Name ? 
 Words were scarce, and the ancients had to employ a 
 Name where a modern scholar would write a book. 
 Hence the notion that primitive man worshipped a 
 multitude of gods. 
 
 Even men were formerly described as "gods"; but 
 that did not imply that they were to be worshipped. 
 Anyone who tried to become like Osiris, the Ideal, was 
 called an Osiris, because the thinker had not a collection 
 of words with which to explain his thoughts. When the 
 Creator was seen as the Divine Mind and was termed The 
 Elohim, then men who were true worshippers were called 
 elohim, which is translated gods. They were "souls." 
 
 Why did Egypt remain a centre of wisdom for the 
 world for thousands of years, while Babylonia became 
 notorious for sensuality and idolatry ? The stability, 
 and prosperity, and happiness of a nation depends on 
 its religion ; so Egypt must have had a true religion. 
 Babylonia set up symbols as objects of worship, and 
 therefore sank. 
 
 o.M. D D 
 
402 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Superstitious materialists are always cringing to some 
 idol, or fetish, or impostor, rather than looking to the 
 Creator as Lord of Right and Truth. If the site of the 
 Garden of Eden were known in the present day, there 
 would be millions trying to find rest for the soul in 
 making pilgrimages to it. God mercifully spared man- 
 kind the temptation. Idolaters must invent a Holy 
 Ganges, or a Holy Mecca, or a Holy Lourdes, without 
 the remotest shadow of sanction from Jehovah. 
 
 The stability of Egypt depended on the definite 
 worship of the Ideal Man under the name of Osiris ; 
 and in the recognition of Him as Son of God. So long 
 as there was clear conception of the Perfect Man, and 
 the worship of the Creator as Father of the Perfect 
 Man, the distinction between right and wrong was as 
 plain as the distinction between the straight and the 
 crooked. " He that believeth on the Son of God hath 
 the witness in him " ; and thus is able to say 
 
 "What if Thy Form we cannot see? 
 We know and feel that Thou art here." 
 
 It is recorded in the Bible that the sons in the first 
 family differed so much that one murdered the other. 
 How, then, can one expect agreement in primitive times 
 as to language ? Each self-opinionated man would try to 
 invent a language for himself, and would style his own 
 the catholic speech. The meek follower of the teaching 
 of Adam may have gone to Egypt for the sake of peace ; 
 and there he tried to instruct his children by picture 
 language and hieroglyphics intended to suggest the 
 spiritual by means of the material. The representation 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE | OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 403 
 
 of the soul, or of a speaking person, by a bird might help 
 to awake spiritual vision in a child, and stimulate the 
 desire to understand parables in symbols. About 4000 
 B.C. a Babylonian invented a written language such as 
 one would expect from a student of physical science, 
 who saw everything subject to law, but saw nothing 
 alive. Cuneiform characters were rigid conventional 
 lines, carefully ordered and arranged, but without the 
 faintest suggestion of any perception of the world as a 
 revelation of the thoughts of God. The Babylonian 
 student was handicapped by the rigid form which gave 
 no stimulus to his imagination. 
 
 There was no possibility of progress in language or 
 civilisation except by men clinging together as members 
 of one family, obedient to parental teaching and care- 
 fully preserving the original basis of religion. What 
 became of the disobedient, and of the stupid, and of 
 the wanderer, and of the reckless adventurer ? There 
 had been no exhaustion of the fertility of the soil ; 
 there was no restriction to the emigrant ; the hunter 
 and the herdsman had the whole earth to wander 
 over. Modern schools often fail to preserve the 
 children of great men from degradation. What depths 
 of barbarism must have been the condition of the 
 descendants of those who had no written language, no 
 stable society, no fixed purpose ? 
 
 Men have a tendency to judge others by themselves ; 
 and the habit of repeating words without attempting 
 to realise their significance leads modern teachers to 
 talk glibly of thousands of years, and even of millions 
 of years. Those who have been educated for a long 
 
 d D 2 
 
404 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 time by the best teachers, without increase of natural 
 ability, maintain that Shakespeare could not possibly 
 have written his plays because he had not any university 
 training ; and they say that the wonderful civilisation 
 of the Babylonians and Egyptians at 4000 B.C. could 
 not have been reached except after thousands of years 
 of development. The conceited dullard is amazed by 
 the performance of men of genius ; and the wisdom of 
 the ancients is an inexplicable puzzle to the Darwinian. 
 
 Suppose that a pair of human beings, perfect in body 
 and mind, had been placed on the earth under the most 
 favourable conditions seven thousand years ago, what 
 would have been the number of their descendants at 
 the end of one thousand years that is, about 4000 
 B.C. ? At a very moderate computation the population 
 of the earth at 4000 B.C. would have been more than 
 two thousand millions ! It is not necessary to suppose 
 that men had been on the earth a thousand years in 
 order to form the great empires of Babylonia and 
 Egypt. There was no lamentation over large families, 
 and no child murder, in primitive times. 
 
 The ancients had no doubt that their first fore- 
 father was Son of the Creator ; and the ruler of every 
 state claimed authority as Son of Heaven, or as repre- 
 sentative of the Archetypal Man. Adam was not the 
 Incarnation of the Archetypal Man ; but was made of 
 the dust in the Image of Him, to be the temple of 
 the Divine Will, or the Holy Ghost. The authority of 
 a ruler ceased in the eyes of the devout as soon as he 
 set himself in opposition to the requirements of the 
 Perfect Man ; but when wealth and luxury increased, 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 405 
 
 and great cities were formed, the whole people were 
 apt to follow their ruler in worship of idols, or in any 
 materialistic superstition that might excuse sensuality 
 and selfishness. The ancients were no wiser than 
 modern Englishmen and Americans ; and in Babylonia 
 there must have been many sufficiently credulous to 
 follow a Blavatsky, or an Eddy, or a Dowie ; though, 
 perhaps, none were so sunk in fetishism as to dread a 
 number as modern critics dread thirteen. Whenever 
 any people cease to worship the Ideal Man they are 
 given up to delusion and to believe a lie. 
 
 The history of Egypt was like that of every family, 
 and nation, and church. Ignorance, materialism, and 
 superstition constantly threaten to obliterate spiritual 
 knowledge and wisdom ; and the utmost efforts of 
 prophets are always needed to resist the downward 
 progress towards the worship of the Baalim of 
 sensuality. In a sunny climate, with the necessaries 
 of life easily obtained, there is little disposition for 
 serious study, and a strong tendency to abandonment 
 to a life of pleasure. There is first the pioneer, who 
 has gained strength and knowledge and wisdom by 
 supporting himself by his own exertions as farmer or 
 shepherd, or in some manner in which he learns to 
 stand alone with God. Next there is the son, who 
 may be a scholar provided with riches, and leisure, 
 and culture, by the ability and toil of his father, and 
 who may produce many books, though possessing little 
 common sense. Then comes the third generation, idle 
 dissatisfied, conceited, scornful, degraded, fancying that 
 the dirty little soul clothed with flimsy verbiage is 
 
406 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 somehow superior to the great ancestral soul with 
 garment of homespun thought. Thus the family, and 
 the nation, and the church become degenerate and 
 corrupt, and sink into idolatry ; and if a prophet is 
 not raised up to restore them to the old faith of 
 Abraham and Adam, they perish utterly. So long as 
 there is some vision of the Perfect Man, virtue and 
 prosperity can be regained ; and Egypt thus recovered 
 from many downfalls throughout a period of three 
 thousand years. 
 
 About 4000 B.C. Egypt and Babylonia were governed 
 by theologians and philosophers, who were striving to 
 invent language in which to express their thoughts and 
 unite men in civilised society. Soon after this date 
 the Great Pyramid was built ; and it is quite probable 
 that one of the chief reasons for its construction was 
 a profound sense of the need of some fixed centre, which 
 might be appealed to as authoritative on questions of 
 religion and language. Flinders Petrie, in speaking of 
 the works of the Egyptians, executed about 4000 years 
 before the " Stone-Age" of Britain, says: " Art, as the 
 gratification of an artificial taste and standard, was 
 scarcely in existence ; but the simplicity, the vastness, 
 the perfection, and the beauty of the earliest works 
 place them on a different level to all works of art and 
 man's device in later ages. They are unique in their 
 splendid power, which no self-conscious civilisation has 
 ever recalled, or can hope to rival ; and in their enduring 
 greatness they may last till all the feebler works of man 
 have perished." Yet the teacher of Darwinism, with 
 no proof of ability beyond that of repeating words 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 407 
 
 formed for him by others, will seriously congratulate 
 himself on his imaginary superiority to primitive man ! 
 
 About 3500 B.C. the ancient nations seem to have 
 attained great wealth, and to have abandoned them- 
 selves to materialism, as has happened so often in 
 England and in every other country. Whether the Nile 
 overflowed Egypt owing to excessive rains, or owing to 
 an earthquake upheaving the Mediterranean, there is 
 the story of the Deluge occurring about this time ; but 
 the probability or improbability of the Flood would not 
 in the least affect the lessons conveyed by the story to 
 the primitive mind, which was accustomed to see the 
 spiritual meaning in symbolical language. The number 
 of those openly devoted to religion had apparently 
 dwindled to one family. Physical culture had so far 
 triumphed that the ancient record declares, " There 
 were giants on the earth in those days." The daughters 
 of strong men ought always to be specially attractive ; 
 and so it happened that the " sons of God " sought the 
 daughters of the giants in marriage, without any regard 
 to their paganism. The natural result was that family 
 piety became almost extinct, as it tends to do when the 
 mother despises religion. Noah was determined to keep 
 his family isolated from their impure surroundings, and 
 to shut out even the tainted air by an antiseptic protec- 
 tion of prayer and precept in every crevice of his house. 
 The only window in the Ark was in the top, since the 
 only safe communion was with God. 
 
 The man of God in the Ark was like a monk in his 
 monastery predicting woe to all mankind, and trying 
 to save himself instead of trying to help others ; but Noah 
 
408 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 was superior to a monk in possessing a wife and family 
 to provide for and to instruct. Thus his human 
 sympathies remained normal, and he soon began to 
 think of the condition of the wicked he had left to 
 wallow in their wickedness. When he tried the effect 
 of sympathy a second time, the dove returned with a 
 fresh olive branch in its mouth ; showing that there 
 were some who had not bowed the knee to Baal, and 
 who would welcome a preacher of righteousness. 
 
 Ancient Hebrews would not have found any of the 
 difficulties encountered by modern materialists in the 
 story of Noah ; for they knew the meaning of the saying : 
 " The letter killeth ; but the spirit giveth life." A 
 prophet in the midst of a degraded people must always 
 dwell upon the mountain top. 
 
 For the next thousand years the central empires seem 
 to have gone on in prosperity, accumulating wealth in 
 great cities, while the earth was overrun by the 
 adventurous, who in many cases lapsed into barbarism. 
 Then about 2500 B.C. all the men of wealth and learning 
 decided to enjoy themselves in the fertile Euphrates 
 valley, where every luxury might be obtained by 
 keeping the mass of the people as ignorant slaves to 
 minister to those possessed of knowledge and power. 
 To mark the centre of the township that was to cover 
 the pleasant country, the Tower of Babel was begun ; 
 and then came the confusion of tongues. Each conceited 
 scholar tried to invent a new language, that was to be 
 the universal tongue ; and that was to be infinitely 
 superior to all the troublesome hieratic and cuneiform 
 writing. The rivals could not agree ; as those who 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 409 
 
 learn Volapuk cannot understand those who learn Espe- 
 ranto. Providence dispersed the scholars to carry 
 fragments of the original wisdom in their various 
 languages to Persia, and India, and China, and Japan, 
 and to America. 
 
 About the time of the disputes at Babel, the records 
 of Egypt disclose a period of high culture and refine- 
 ment, only to be succeeded in a century or two by 
 dissensions, decay of art, and relapse into ignorance of 
 the ancestral wisdom. As in England, the generation 
 elevated by spiritual culture was succeeded by a genera- 
 tion devoted to mere mental culture ; and this by a 
 generation revelling in material pleasures, and sinking 
 to mere animal enjoyment. 
 
 In the case of Egypt there were still worshippers of 
 the Archetypal Man, and of the Divine Ruler ; but in 
 Babylonia the professional teachers of religion were 
 ignorant and corrupt performers of rites and ceremonies, 
 and inventors of legends and idols, intended to bring 
 profit and glory to themselves. Hence about 2000 B.C. 
 Abraham could find no one to sympathise with him in 
 his desire to know the will of the Creator, and to learn 
 Divine Wisdom. No one cared to think of the Moral 
 Ideal, or the Perfect Man, or the Excellent Law. 
 
 Abraham was the grand old yogi. He was a Hebrew 
 that is, one who has crossed over from animalism to 
 spiritualism. Communion with the Creator was to him 
 the one thing essential ; and he felt like the Psalmist : 
 " Whom have I in heaven but Thee ; and there is none 
 upon earth that I desire in comparison with Thee." 
 Whatever interfered between the soul and God he was 
 
410 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 resolved to sacrifice ; and, though he has left no writings 
 and made no effort to be famous, he will be described to 
 the end of time as " father of the faithful." 
 
 In the course of his wanderings Abraham went to 
 Egypt, and he found the Pharaoh a worshipper of the 
 God of Right and Truth ; which would account for the 
 high state of civilisation that prevailed there from 2000 
 B.C. till 1700 B.C. The visit of a sage like Abraham 
 could not but have a stimulating influence on all the 
 pious teachers of the ancient religion ; and a traveller 
 of such high reputation as to be received by the 
 Pharaoh must have been heard of by all men of learning 
 as well as by the common people. 
 
 By his solitary communion with the Creator, and his" 
 life of devotion to well-doing, the " father of the 
 faithful" gained an absolutely clear vision of the 
 Archetypal Man ; and this was the consequence of 
 his hearing God say to him : " Walk before Me, and 
 be thou perfect." The object of all his religion was 
 to become an Osiris, to be similar to the Archetypal 
 Man, the Son of God ; and he would have thoroughly 
 appreciated the significance of the mirror in a Shinto 
 temple. He was a follower of The Way, or The Old 
 Paths. 
 
 When Jesus of Nazareth was asserting His claim to 
 be the Incarnation of the Archetypal Man, He said 
 to the Jews : " Your father Abraham rejoiced to see 
 My day; and he saw it and was glad." At first the 
 Jews did not perceive the magnitude of the claim, and 
 simply spoke of the great antiquity of Abraham and 
 the youth of Jesus ; but when He added afterwards : 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 4II 
 
 "Before Abraham was, I am," they took up stones to 
 kill Him, because they could no longer doubt that He 
 claimed to be the Messiah, the Osiris, the Archetypal 
 Man, the Judge, the Son of God. 
 
 Christians in the present day sometimes fancy they 
 are superior mentally and spiritually to the ancients; 
 and that they have no need to study the Old Faith. 
 How many Christians have a clear notion of the 
 importance and profundity of the saying : " Before 
 Abraham was, I am"? Yet Egyptian sages, who 
 probably discussed theology and philosophy with 
 Abraham, would have recognised it as referring to 
 the foundation of all religion and all morals, and as 
 the most momentous utterance that could be made 
 by any human being. 
 
 From 1700 B.C. till 1500 B.C. seems to have been 
 another period of corruption in Egypt, though the 
 Pharaohs were rich and powerful. Wealth, sloth, and 
 debauchery seem to have prevailed, and slaves were 
 employed to perform all important and difficult work. 
 The slaves were the Israelites, the possessors of the 
 Promise, which must often have seemed a vain delusion. 
 To the materialists of all time these slaves will seem 
 mystics ; for those who are stumbling in woods, where 
 they cannot see their way, apply the term mystics to 
 those who have a clear view from the summit of 
 the hill. 
 
 The endurance of the faith of the Israelites must 
 have appeared to the Egyptians an amazing example of 
 obstinate blindness. Generation after generation had 
 to live in misery, and die without the remotest chance 
 
412 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 of ever regaining freedom, so far as their masters could 
 see ; and yet they persisted in worshipping the Creator 
 as the God of Abraham, the Faithful God of the 
 Promise. They always seemed to say: "Though He 
 slay me, yet will I trust in Him." What is the 
 explanation ? They knew the secret of the ancient 
 religion which the Egyptians had forgotten ; and they 
 endured because seeing Him Who is invisible. 
 
 About 1500 B.C. Moses appeared upon the scene ; 
 the son of a Hebrew slave, but so attractive in strength 
 and beauty that the daughter of Pharaoh insisted on 
 adopting him, in spite of the law decreeing that he 
 should perish. Thus the Hebrew child was reared as 
 an Egyptian prince ; and stands out in history as the 
 most wonderful combination of physical and mental 
 power, intellectual training, profound learning, legis- 
 lative capacity, self-sacrificing sympathy, and spiritual 
 insight. Taught by his Hebrew mother, who was 
 providentially selected by the princess to be his nurse, 
 he looked upon all things in the light of the Divine 
 Mind; and was thus able to perceive the spiritual truth 
 beneath the multitudinous legends and absurdities with 
 which idolatrous priests had overlaid the primitive 
 wisdom. Though numbered among the princes, they 
 were little more to him than inferior animals when 
 compared with the Hebrew slaves, with whom he could 
 have spiritual communion because they worshipped the 
 Creator in spirit and in truth as God of Righteousness. 
 
 In order to mature him for the great work for which 
 he was designed, God compelled Moses to live for many 
 years as a shepherd among strangers, where he could 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 413 
 
 not obtain the Egyptian books that would have dis- 
 tracted his attention, and would have prevented the 
 performance of natural duties, and the unobstructed 
 communion with the Divine Mind, that alone can give 
 strength and certainty to spiritual vision. When fully 
 educated by prolonged solitary communion with God 
 and Nature, and by the care of a family, and by 
 reflection upon the ancient knowledge and wisdom he 
 had been taught, the great philosopher returned to 
 Egypt to resume his rank as a prince and adviser ; and 
 yet to act as champion of the Hebrew slaves in their 
 conflict with idolatrous rulers and priests, who denied 
 the God of Right and Truth worshipped by their 
 ancestors. 
 
 Moses was familiar with all the teaching of the 
 Egyptian sacred writings, and saw before him the Great 
 Balance and the Perfect Man. He knew that only the 
 Perfect could satisfy the demands of the Supreme Judge. 
 How to make a nation of perfect men and women out 
 of a crowd of slaves, who had not known freedom for 
 generations, and who had been accustomed to starva- 
 tion, and flogging, and absolute submission, was the 
 task he undertook. He made a summary of the best 
 regulations and moral precepts the ancient books con- 
 tained, for the guidance of the wanderers under his 
 care. It was not possible to eradicate in one generation 
 the results of prolonged physical suffering and mental 
 terror ; and so all whose bodies and spirits had been 
 permanently injured by their slavery had to die in the 
 Wilderness. A new generation was produced, with 
 innate independence of spirit, love of freedom, and 
 
414 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 physical and moral courage, relying absolutely on 
 Jehovah. 
 
 It is to be noted that no nation had ever before 
 worshipped God as Jehovah the Saviour and Friend. 
 Every pious Hebrew had always worshipped the Creator 
 as Jehovah, but only as Saviour of the individual. 
 Henceforth the Israelites were to rely on God to save 
 them as a nation as well as individually. England, as 
 a nation, professes to worship Jehovah ; and gives 
 evidence of this worship by national thanksgiving and 
 national humiliation. 
 
 There was no paper, and no printing press, and no 
 permanent dwelling-place in the Wilderness. How 
 were the people to be instructed in the most important 
 truths of religion, which had been lost to the mass of 
 the Egyptian people, and even to the scholars, by con- 
 cealment in hieroglyphics ? Moses adopted the natural 
 system of symbolical correspondence ; which is a test 
 of spiritual knowledge, and an aid to spiritual under- 
 standing, for all who worship the Creator in Spirit and 
 in truth, but which proved a stumbling-block and a 
 source of idolatry to those who did not know Jehovah. 
 
 It must always be remembered that Moses did not 
 profess to invent any new teaching ; except, perhaps, 
 that of impressing on the Hebrews that a nation can 
 worship God with the same satisfaction, and the same 
 certainty of pardon and blessing, and the same certainty 
 of punishment, as an individual. Though an Egyptian 
 prince and a Hebrew leader, he looked back with 
 reverence to Abraham, five hundred years before, and to 
 Noah four hundred years before Abraham, and to the 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 415 
 
 primitive teachers nearly two thousand years before 
 Noah. The great work of his life as a scholar was the 
 selection and translation of the principles of theology 
 and religion to be found in the ancient records ; while, 
 as an inspired prophet, he taught the natural symbolism 
 that must be recognised throughout all time as the 
 physical phenomena and the objective expressions that 
 correspond to the spiritual truths represented. 
 
 Many Jews and Christians formerly regarded Moses 
 as the originator of the Pentateuch ; and the Jews 
 thought they were appealing to the ultimate authority 
 when they said, " Why then did Moses command to 
 give a bill of divorcement, and to put her away ? " 
 Christ replied to them, " Moses for your hardness of 
 heart suffered you to put away your wives, but from the 
 beginning it hath not been so." The Age of Gold, when 
 Truth and Right were supreme, had been almost 
 forgotten centuries before Moses was born ; and man- 
 kind had degenerated until immorality, and disease, and 
 divorce were probably as common in ancient Egypt as 
 in modern France and England. Moses had to legislate 
 for a degraded people not for a humanity ascending by 
 evolution. 
 
 The fate of Egypt was sealed by the Exodus. The 
 loss of the Israelites was greater than the loss of the 
 Huguenots to France ; for there were none remaining 
 behind who had any vision of the Archetypal Man ; and 
 without that vision all the wisdom of the ages was 
 as hopelessly impotent to elevate the people as the 
 stones upon which the hieroglyphics were engraved. 
 History is the preceptor of mankind, though seldom 
 
416 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 listened to. Few of the great empires of the past 
 endured more than four or five centuries ; and in 
 Central Asia there were over and over again vast and 
 populous capitals of nations blotted out completely. 
 Egypt struggled on by the aid of the reflection of 
 original theology embodied in all its monuments, and 
 its hieroglyphics, and its philosophy; but its importance 
 as a living instructor of mankind ceased with the Exodus, 
 though its wisdom imparted to the villagers of Greece 
 and Italy may be said to have raised up great nations 
 out of its ashes. 
 
 Within a few centuries of the Exodus the centre of 
 spiritual light for the world was established at Jerusalem 
 by the descendants of the Hebrew slaves. Egypt still 
 had a numerous population, and glorious traditions, and 
 great power, and the most extensive libraries, and was 
 the seat of important schools of philosophy to which 
 the nations around sent their sons for higher education ; 
 yet its light was doomed to fade and go out in obscure 
 darkness. 
 
 What was the religion taught by Moses as the Old 
 Faith ? What central ideas bound together the 
 wanderers in the Desert, and fused them into a nation 
 which, though contemptible in numbers as compared 
 with the great empires of the earth, established itself 
 as the most influential for good in all history ? Egypt, 
 and Babylonia, and Persia, may be said to have died 
 when they were extinguished ; whereas the apparent 
 extinction of the Hebrews set fire to the world. 
 
 Wonder, and awe, and reverence were recognised as 
 essential elements in the worship of the Almighty ; but 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 417 
 
 while bowing before the Infinite Spirit, and contem- 
 plating all things as the work of the Divine Mind, it 
 was necessary to remember that the great aim of 
 religion is to obtain reconciliation with the Creator. 
 How could these truths be kept constantly before the 
 attention of wandering tribesmen ? Moses had seen in 
 Egypt how the study of words, and books, and the 
 inventions of others, leaves men blind to spiritual 
 truth; so that knowledge of languages, and grammar, 
 and history, and authors, may even be mistaken for 
 knowledge of theology. 
 
 The ancient absolute moral standard had to be dog- 
 matically taught. Right, and Truth, and Purity were 
 to be supreme in the mind of the worshipper. Wonder 
 and Awe were to be exercised by the mysteries of the 
 Holy of Holies, and of the Ark. Each individual had 
 to try to imagine for himself the meaning of the Law, 
 and the Mercy Seat, and the Shekinah, and the Rod 
 that Budded, and the Manna. 
 
 What was the Shekinah? It seems an inexplicable 
 puzzle to many Christians ; but must have been a 
 familiar idea to the Hebrews. As the most elementary 
 principle, the ancients believed that Man was made in 
 the likeness of God, and that the Archetypal Man 
 existed before all time in the Creative Mind. The 
 Shekinah was the revelation of God ; and the Shinto 
 temple of Japan teaches the meaning very simply by its 
 mirror. In the Holy of Holies spiritual vision saw the 
 Archetypal Man. 
 
 Man cannot know himself except by knowing God ; 
 and he cannot know God except by knowing himself. 
 
 O.M. E E 
 
418 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 The Ideal Man is concealed in every soul, as truly as the 
 ideal circle. There is a vision which every man may 
 see for himself; but which no man can show his brother. 
 Each must see for himself alone. There were no priests 
 between God and man in the Old Faith ; but only 
 teachers of The Way. 
 
 The meaning of the word " manna " is said to be 
 " What is it ? " Each one had to discover for himself 
 the spiritual food that comes down from heaven to the 
 seeker, and that cannot be stored up. Each learns the 
 meaning of the Rod that Buds when he realises that 
 God can make man of the dust, and can make wood 
 produce wine out of earth. 
 
 About iooo B.C. David was ruler in Jerusalem ; and 
 the great struggle of his life was to become like the 
 Archetypal Man, the Son of God. He tried with all 
 his might to be an Osiris ; and found that the greatest 
 warrior is likely to encounter the fiercest enemies, and 
 that what is most valuable has to be gained by deadly 
 conflict. His moral standard and ethical ideals were 
 higher than those of many modern scholars, and his 
 vision of the Perfect Man was as clear as that of the 
 primitive teachers; but his conduct fell so far short 
 of his ideals that he mourned his depravity with the 
 deepest remorse. Those who do not know the meaning 
 of ideals, and of the struggle to attain them, speak with 
 scorn of David ; but the strong man is the object of 
 attack, and the powerful demons only enter into inferior 
 creatures by miraculous compulsion. The devil would 
 regard it as loss of time and energy to enter into mere 
 swine. 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 419 
 
 What were the conditions that helped to give David 
 clearer vision of the Perfect Man than his critics possess? 
 He had strength, courage, and fearlessness. He was 
 ready to sacrifice his own life to secure the welfare of 
 his people. He had learned common-sense by working 
 on the Level. In his inmost heart he loathed selfishness 
 and falsehood ; and lamented every moral lapse infinitely 
 more than if it had been a physical fall into a poisonous 
 cesspool. He detested falsehood so much that he 
 resolved to permit no liar to dwell in his household. 
 He was ready to fight all the giants in the world in 
 defence of Right and Truth. The law in his flesh some- 
 times triumphed over the law in his mind, and threatened 
 to bring him into subjection to the law of sin and death ; 
 but when reproved for sin, his humility and repentance 
 afford an example for all time. What modern ruler 
 would reply as David did to Nathan ? What modern 
 preacher would go with confidence to a modern emperor, 
 king, or president, and reprove him plainly for his 
 immoral conduct ? When a man in Christian England 
 is accused of adultery, he perjures himself and tries to 
 bribe others to swear falsely ; and when an illegitimate 
 child is born, the father does not lament over its death 
 as David did, but is more likely to wish its destruction. 
 David bewailed his sin before God : his modern censor 
 only regrets being found out. 
 
 All Christians go to the Hebrew psalmist for the 
 expression of the most profound spiritual experience, 
 and the most elevated conception of the Creator and of 
 the Archetypal Man. Language had developed greatly, 
 and David had the pen of a ready writer, so that he was 
 
 E E 2 
 
420 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 able to express the thoughts of primitive sages with 
 fluency and force in the language of the common people. 
 What did he teach regarding God, and a Moral 
 Standard, and the Ideal Man ? 
 
 " Thou art not an Elohim that hath pleasure in 
 wickedness : evil shall not sojourn with Thee. The 
 arrogant shall not stand in Thy sight : Thou hatest all 
 workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that 
 speak lies. Jehovah abhorreth the bloodthirsty and 
 deceitful man." 
 
 " O Jehovah, who shall dwell in Thy tabernacle ; or 
 who shall rest upon Thy holy hill ? Even he that leadeth 
 an uncorrupt life ; and doeth the thing which is right, 
 and speaketh the truth from his heart. He that has 
 used no deceit in his tongue, nor done evil to his neigh- 
 bour ; and hath not slandered his neighbour. He that 
 setteth not by himself, but is lowly in his own eyes ; 
 and maketh much of them that fear Jehovah. He that 
 sweareth unto his neighbour and disappointeth him not, 
 though it were to his own hindrance. He that hath not 
 given his money upon usury ; not taken reward against 
 the innocent." 
 
 " The law of Jehovah is an undefined law converting 
 the soul ; the testimony of Jehovah is sure, and giveth 
 wisdom unto the simple. The statutes of Jehovah are 
 right, and rejoice the heart ; the commandment of 
 Jehovah is pure, and giveth light unto the eyes. The 
 fear of Jehovah is clean, and endureth for ever; 
 the judgments of Jehovah are true, and righteous 
 altogether." 
 
 " Gracious and righteous is Jehovah ; therefore will 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 421 
 
 He teach sinners in The Way. Them that are meek 
 shall He guide in judgment ; and such as are gentle, 
 them shall He learn His Way. All the paths of Jehovah 
 are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant 
 and His testimonies." 
 
 " Keep thy tongue from evil ; and thy lips that they 
 speak no guile. Depart from evil, and do good; seek 
 peace, and pursue it. The eyes of Jehovah are towards 
 the righteous ; and His ears are open unto their 
 prayers." 
 
 " Thy loving-kindness, O Jehovah, reacheth unto the 
 heavens ; and Thy faithfulness unto the skies. Thy 
 righteousness standeth like the strong mountains ; Thy 
 judgments are like the great deep. Thou, O Jehovah, 
 shalt save both man and beast. How precious is Thy 
 loving-kindness, O Elohim : and the children of men 
 shall put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings." 
 
 " A small thing that the righteous hath is better than 
 great riches of the ungodly." 
 
 " The righteous is ever merciful and lendeth ; and 
 his seed is blessed." 
 
 " I will walk in my house with a perfect heart. I 
 will take no wicked thing in hand. I hate the sins 
 of unfaithfulness ; there shall no such cleave unto me. 
 A froward heart shall depart from me ; I will not know 
 a wicked person. Whoso privily slandereth his neigh- 
 bour, him will I destroy. Whoso hath also a proud 
 look and high stomach, I will not suffer him. Mine 
 eyes look upon such as are faithful in the land, that 
 they may dwell with me. Whoso leadeth a godly life, 
 he shall be my servant. There shall no deceitful 
 
422 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 person dwell in my house ; he that telleth lies shall not 
 tarry in my sight." 
 
 When the Psalmist was thinking how the Ideal Man 
 would rule, he sang : " In His time shall the righteous 
 flourish ; yea, and abundance of peace so long as the 
 moon endureth. . . . All kings shall fall down before 
 Him ; all nations shall do Him service. For He shall 
 deliver the poor when he crieth ; the needy also, and 
 him that hath no helper. He shall be favourable to the 
 simple and needy, and shall preserve the souls of the 
 poor. He shall deliver their souls from falsehood and 
 wrong ; and dear shall their blood be in His sight." 
 
 How did David become the spiritual teacher of the 
 world ? He says : " O Jehovah, what love have I unto 
 Thy law ; all the day long is my study in it. Thou 
 through Thy commandments hast made me wiser than 
 my enemies ; for they are ever with me. I have more 
 understanding than my teachers ; for Thy testimonies 
 are my study. I am wiser than the aged, because I 
 keep Thy commandments. I have refrained my feet 
 from every evil way, that I may keep Thy word. I 
 have not shrunk from Thy judgments; for Thou 
 teachest me." 
 
 The Psalmist would have been surprised and indig- 
 nant if accused of inventing any new view of the Creator 
 or of the Archetypal Man, or of trying to improve the 
 Moral Standard of his forefathers. 
 
 Thought is still dominated by dogmas and creeds 
 derived from primitive teachers ; and the Psalms of 
 David form a basis of language and a bond of union 
 for all English-speaking people, and for all Christians. 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 423 
 
 Unity of religion and of nationality would be further 
 cemented if every child were compelled to spend one 
 hour each day for ten years of school life in reading 
 the Bible as the most important of all books. 
 
 From beginning to end the subject of the Bible is 
 the Archetypal Man ; and this must be true of all 
 writings worthy of being described as sacred. Fidelity 
 to the Ideal is the test of inspiration. The Bible is an 
 account of the aspirations and struggles of man to regain 
 harmony with the Creator, and its distinguishing feature 
 is clear perception of what is required. The origin and 
 nature of man are taught with certainty; and thus there 
 is certainty as to the means necessary to satisfy him. 
 Sins, and blunders, and follies are recorded as examples 
 to show the results of wrong methods ; and the Creator 
 as Judge, and Governor, and Father, is always present 
 to the mind of the writer. 
 
 There seems to have been a great revival of religion 
 in the time of David, so that spiritual insight became as 
 keen as in primitive times ; but while the early teachers 
 were only able to express their visions by pictures, the 
 Psalmist had eloquence and literary ability. 
 
 The contrast between the views expressed in the 
 Psalms, which were derived from primitive teaching, and 
 the doctrines preached by those who try to reconcile 
 religion with Darwinism is very striking. 
 
 The Psalmist had a vivid consciousness of the 
 Creator as Governor, Judge, and Father, immanent 
 in all creation. The evolutionist has a hazy notion 
 of an indefinite Power or Force somehow involving 
 intelligence. 
 
424 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 The Psalmist, like the primitive teacher, was pro- 
 foundly conscious of the Righteousness of God, and of 
 the absolute distinction between right and wrong ; and 
 he had an almost overwhelming sense of his responsi- 
 bility as an individual to be judged. The evolutionist 
 has no clear notion of personality apart from the general 
 mass of changing protoplasm ; and his notions of right 
 and wrong must be utterly uncertain since he fancies 
 there is no fixed moral standard. 
 
 The Psalmist had the loftiest conception of holiness 
 and purity, produced by contemplation of the Archetypal 
 Man, and by consciousness of the in-dwelling of the 
 Divine Spirit. The evolutionist knows nothing of holi- 
 ness or purity except as determined by accidents of time 
 and place, since there is to him no fixed basis of moral 
 nature. 
 
 The Psalmist recognised the Archetypal Man as his 
 Lord, sitting beside the Great Balance to judge him ; 
 and thus he says : " The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit 
 Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy 
 footstool." There was absolute certainty that man 
 must appear before the Ideal Man for judgment after 
 death. The evolutionist cannot believe in life after 
 death as something individual, since all is supposed to 
 be fluctuating, and he cannot know the Archetypal Man 
 the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. How can 
 there be judgment if there is no Judge ? 
 
 The sense of his own sinfulness as compared with the 
 infinite perfection of God caused the Psalmist to pros- 
 trate himself in dust and ashes. Evolution teaches that 
 there is no definite perfection, and consequently no sin. 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 425 
 
 One of the most important commands of primitive 
 religion, and the only one with special promise of 
 blessing was, " Honour thy father and thy mother." 
 As each man honoured his father, the degree of import- 
 ance became more and more intense the more remote 
 the ancestor, until it culminated in the adoration of 
 Adam for his Father, the Creator ; or, as it is symbolised 
 in China and Japan, by reverence of the Emperor as 
 Son of Heaven. Belief in evolution compels a man to 
 regard his ancestors with pity or contempt, and must 
 produce disrespect for parents and for ancient wisdom. 
 
 Christians who accept Darwinism say that the ancients 
 had very dim sense of a future life, that they did not 
 realise what is holiness, that they could not have such 
 lofty aspirations as modern worshippers, and that they 
 could not know anything of the triumph and joy and 
 peace in believing enjoyed by the Christian. Yet every 
 Sunday the Psalms of the Hebrews are sung, because in 
 them there is the absolute certainty of belief in future 
 judgment, and the loftiest imaginable aspirations, and 
 the most triumphant joy and confidence in communion 
 with Jehovah. The modern degenerate alters the 
 original hymn of praise, and requires worshippers to 
 sing, " Him serve with fear," where the ancients sang, 
 " Him serve with mirth." 
 
 It was not possible for primitive man to doubt the 
 Fall. There was no accumulation of words to obscure 
 his vision or stupefy his conscience. The Balance did 
 not admit of degrees of accuracy. When a thing did 
 not satisfy the Plumb it was seen to be wrong ; but as 
 men became confounded by eloquent teachers who 
 
426 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 mistook words for thoughts they were bewildered by the 
 notion that right and wrong may be compared to degrees 
 of heat and cold, or to varying light and shadow. The 
 Ideal Man and the Balance are now concealed by the 
 evolution fog ; and the man of eloquence says evil is 
 failure to reach the highest, whilst at the same time he 
 looks forward into a cloud which he thinks is evolving 
 into some highest that has no fixed shape. 
 
 Certainty of Judgment, clear vision of the Archetypal 
 Man as standard of comparison, and keen sense of the 
 accuracy of the Balance without rust or dust on it, made 
 the cry of primitive man for Atonement very urgent. 
 There was no doubt about the Justice of the Creator, 
 or the sinfulness of man ; and there was no attempt or 
 desire to shirk responsibility. The man was too proud 
 of his position as a responsible being to stoop to the 
 contemptible meanness of those who whine that they 
 are only puppets bobbing up and down as determinism 
 pulls the strings. Manliness in primitive times would 
 have scorned to suppose that the Creator is not God 
 of Justice ; but the modern liar would accept mercy and 
 forgiveness without any sense of his degradation. 
 
 Primitive theologians taught the immanence of God, 
 and the restoration of man to his position of child of 
 God through the sacrifice of the Archetypal Man. 
 The Creator was in Osiris, reconciling the world unto 
 Himself, and making Mercy possible while satisfying 
 Justice. Primitive man knew that the Archetypal Man, 
 or Osiris, must be the Mediator, and that Divine Justice 
 could not be satisfied except by His suffering and 
 death ; though death could not retain dominion over 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 427 
 
 the Source of Life, or over the Son of God. Every 
 man was seen as a rebel ; and yet as one of the 
 children of God. The Son of God had to submit to 
 human limitations in order to become the Representative 
 of Humanity, and to satisfy Divine Justice by a sinless 
 life and unmerited death, and to purify and sanctify 
 human nature by self-sacrificing love, and to overcome 
 decay and death by His resurrection. The primitive 
 theologians would have appreciated the thoughts 
 expressed in the lines : 
 
 "The Holy One did hide His Face 
 O Christ, 'twas hid from Thee ! 
 Dumb darkness wrapt Thy soul a space 
 The darkness due to me." 
 
 The reign of Solomon was one of the most remark- 
 able in the history of the world. Possessed of enormous 
 wealth, concentrated in a small city, he received the 
 homage of foreign potentates for his wisdom, and 
 strangers seemed to vie with one another in adding 
 to his riches. In modern times the small nation that 
 is rich in gold is not likely to survive. It is commonly 
 supposed that the world in the days of Solomon was 
 more heathen than it is now ; yet politicians would be 
 amazed if foreign nations were to send gifts to some 
 modern king because he has a reputation for piety. 
 The presents would rather be determined by the number 
 of soldiers he could send as an ally. All the tribes on 
 the borders of the Mediterranean, that afterwards fought 
 with one another, were united in providing Solomon 
 with material to build the Temple, which was the 
 
428 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 symbol of Right and Truth. Centuries afterwards 
 Greece became important, and fought with Persia; 
 Rome became powerful, and destroyed Carthage ; but 
 in the days of Solomon there was peaceful trade between 
 Tyre and all neighbouring nations and tribes. What 
 is the explanation ? The people in reality wished to 
 worship the Divine Mind, the Elohim, the God of 
 Right and Truth ; and they saw in Solomon an upholder 
 of Right and Truth. All honest men judge conduct by 
 Right and Truth ; and Solomon was regarded as the 
 Grand Master of all Masons, maintaining the funda- 
 mental principles of all religion and morality. 
 
 About 976 B.C. Solomon died, and history pursued 
 the usual routine. The grandson of the successful 
 worker fancied his superior position to be due to his 
 own worth, and ignored his obligations to Jehovah. 
 The Chinese and Japanese know that a man is becoming 
 a worthless and dangerous citizen when he neglects his 
 ancestral tablets ; and Rehoboam paid no attention to 
 the precepts, and experience, and religion of Solomon, 
 his father, or of David, his grandfather. The curse of 
 God was upon him and his people as a natural con- 
 sequence. Spiritual insight was lost ; and the Divine 
 Mind was no longer worshipped, even as God of Right 
 and Truth ; which, of course, implied utter blindness 
 to the claims of the Creator as Jehovah, the Deliverer 
 and Friend. 
 
 The Israelites became more and more corrupt and 
 degraded by deviating more and more from the true 
 worship of the Elohim, and of the Ideal Man. Prophet 
 after prophet arose to point out their errors, and to 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 429 
 
 recall them to the Old Faith. God never left Himself 
 without a witness among the children of Abraham; 
 and the greatest scholars among modern Christians 
 can find nothing in all literature to exceed in nobility of 
 sentiment and profundity of perception the descriptions 
 given by Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and the 
 other prophets, of the majesty, and justice, and mercy 
 of the Creator, and of the nature and attributes of the 
 Supreme Ideal. 
 
 Why were the Jews deaf to all the entreaties, and 
 warnings, and teaching of their prophets ? The people 
 had become mere Jews, and had ceased to be Hebrews. 
 The material had triumphed over the spiritual ; as the 
 Petros triumphed over the Petra in later ages among 
 the Christians ; or as the idolatries of Buddhism 
 triumphed over the spiritual faith of Shinto ; or as 
 the silly inventions of Brahman priests triumphed over 
 the Old Faith taught in the Veda. The Jews forgot 
 that their ancestors worshipped God as Lord of the 
 whole earth and of all mankind. Selfishness made 
 them blind to duty; and instead of regarding the 
 Temple as open to true worshippers of all nations, as 
 Solomon had dedicated it, they fancied themselves the 
 monopolists of Divine favour, and in their selfish folly 
 tried to localise the worship of God. 
 
 Pious Hindu teachers have been endeavouring for 
 the past three thousand years to understand and to 
 explain the knowledge handed down by their primitive 
 ancestors, who worshipped God as the Infinite One, 
 and saw the Primeval Male as coeval with the 
 Creator. 
 
430 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Monier Williams says the uncompromising creed of 
 true Brahmanism is, "There is but One Being, no 
 second"; and nothing really exists but the One 
 Universal Spirit. Nothing is real but God. Yet the 
 ancient Hindu religion also teaches the worship of the 
 Creator as a Triad of Divine Forms, or a Divine 
 Trinity, spoken of as the Mystic Syllable, A.U.M. 
 It also teaches that the Primeval Male, coeval with 
 the Creator, offered Himself as a sacrifice ; and that he 
 who, knowing the meaning of this, sacrifices with the 
 sacrifice of the Primeval Male, becomes everything, or 
 has rest for his soul. 
 
 Christianity, which is very simple for a peasant, can 
 provide endless puzzles for a dreamer ; and Brahman 
 priests have overlaid the primitive truths in their Veda 
 with mountains of vain fancies. They bewildered 
 themselves with discussions regarding the reality of 
 phenomena, and lost themselves among words. What 
 is meant by real ? If by real is meant something self- 
 existent, without possible beginning or ending, the 
 Christian agrees with the Brahman ; and man is not 
 real in this sense since he is the creature of a day. 
 There is nothing eternally self-existent and unchange- 
 able but the Creator. 
 
 The Aryans, or " nobles," are supposed to have 
 descended into India between 2000 B.C. and 1500 B.C. ; 
 and to have taken with them the Veda, or the true 
 knowledge. The Veda was said to have had no 
 author ; but to have been heard by some inspired man 
 or men, and to have been carefully learned and repeated 
 as original wisdom of the greatest importance for 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 43I 
 
 humanity. It had the same origin as " The Book of 
 the Dead." 
 
 India must have had a large population more than a 
 thousand years before the date assigned to the Veda, 
 or the Aryans, since there were no artificial restrictions 
 to population ; but the people were broken up into a 
 multitude of tribes unable to understand one another. 
 What could have become of the descendants of an 
 outcast like Cain ? What would become of the 
 descendants of any modern king if left without educa- 
 tion or language for several generations in a land 
 without any one educated more than themselves ? 
 
 Before 2000 B.C. the great dispute among scholars 
 had occurred in Babylonia ; and the rival inventors of 
 languages had dispersed over the earth. The Aryans 
 took to India the Veda, or the true knowledge, taught 
 in "The Book of the Dead" two thousand years 
 before ; but the ideas were expressed in Sanscrit, 
 because that was the one of the rival tongues they 
 had adopted. Babylonia and Egypt were eminent in 
 literature and art long before the invention of Sanscrit ; 
 though the use of cuneiform characters and hiero- 
 glyphics must have obstructed popular education, and 
 placed every pupil at the mercy of the pronunciation of 
 his teacher. 
 
 Since the Veda was not written, but learned and taught 
 by 01 al repetition, the official teachers were regarded as 
 of great importance ; and the natural result was that 
 they assumed more and more authority, and became 
 more and more domineering, until they claimed the 
 positions of priests able to intervene between God and 
 
432 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 man. As the Brahmans became ignorant and arrogant 
 they invented complicated ritual, sacrificial ceremonies, 
 and idolatrous superstitions ; until the true worship of 
 the Infinite Creator, and the vision of the Primeval 
 Male, were lost. 
 
 Yet beneath all the dust and rubbish of Hinduism 
 and Brahmanism there is the primitive religion. 
 Brahmanism has rules for the guidance of those who 
 would hear and see spiritually, so as to enjoy the 
 serenity of soul only possible to those worshippers who 
 penetrate beyond the veil imposed by the senses, and 
 who seek harmony with the Ideal Man by observing the 
 perfect moral standard. 
 
 The genuine Brahman must be absolutely truthful. 
 He must injure no one ; and must be kind to every 
 living thing. He must be self-sacrificing. He must 
 seek his highest enjoyment in spiritual exercises, and 
 prove his recognition of the claims of the spirit by 
 abstaining from selfish and distracting pleasures of the 
 senses. He must commune with the Creator daily, and 
 meditate in solitude upon the A.U.M., and the mystery 
 of existence. When seeking the most profound spiritual 
 knowledge, he must become oblivious to the earth and 
 its concerns. In the Nothing he finds the All ; yet he 
 must be obedient to his teachers, and must study with 
 docility. He must preserve himself from all moral 
 impurity and from every deceitful action. 
 
 The youth who would be a worthy Brahman must 
 perform outward acts indicative of his worship, and 
 thus testify his faith openly before men. He must bathe 
 every day, as acknowledgment of his need of moral 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 433 
 
 purification. He must feed the sacred fire, to remind 
 him that the service of God cannot be neglected without 
 spiritual loss. He must ask alms from an assembled 
 company as evidence of his common humanity, and his 
 dependence on his fellow-men. Thus he stands on the 
 Level, though a Brahman ; for God alone knows who is 
 the superior. 
 
 The outward and visible sign of the inward spiritual 
 life is the threefold sacred cord, with which the youth 
 is invested when he is supposed, and supposes himself, 
 to be one of the twice-born ; but there are, no doubt, 
 many wearers of the sacred cord who have no more 
 experience of the Second Birth than Nicodemushad, and 
 no more notion of the Divine Trinity than a modern 
 agnostic. 
 
 The Brahman in the fulness of time is obliged to take 
 a wife ; and thus the Brahmanic regulations resemble 
 the Jewish, since a rabbi is not permitted to occupy the 
 highest position in the synagogue so long as he remains 
 unmarried. No matter what his age, learning, reputa- 
 tion, or piety, he is regarded as an inferior man until he 
 is head of a household. Thus the Hindus and the Jews 
 may be said to regard matrimony as a sacrament, or a 
 sacred obligation imposed by the Creator ; and by their 
 actions they prove the sincerity of their profession, 
 whereas many Christians who call marriage a sacrament 
 remain celibate. It must be noted that many Christians 
 reserve the word " sacrament " to denote an ordinance 
 instituted by Christ ; and in that sense, of course, 
 marriage cannot be called a sacrament. 
 
 Candidates for the Christian ministry would do well 
 
 O.M. F F 
 
434 T ^E ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 to examine their fitness by the rules laid down for the 
 Brahman student ; and missionaries to India need to 
 bear in mind that true spiritual vision is not a monopoly 
 of modern Europe and America. Those who work and 
 invent for themselves are apt to become superior to 
 those who rely upon the efforts and teaching of others. 
 Eastern sages and humble worshippers may walk with 
 God like Abraham, or Adam ; for the conception of the 
 Archetypal Man, or the Christ, is the common heritage 
 of mankind. The true Brahman teacher must maintain, 
 as the Hebrew psalmist, and the primitive Egyptian, 
 that only the man striving to be absolutely truthful, 
 upright, pure, and unselfish, can have the spiritual satis- 
 faction and restfulness of soul which may be described 
 as dwelling in the tabernacle of God. The missionary 
 to India needs to have spiritual vision, and to be truthful, 
 and upright, and pure, and unselfish, and self-sacrificing, 
 and kind, and gentle ; otherwise, he may compare 
 unfavourably with a Brahman. 
 
 When on a tour in India the Rev. Dr. Fairbairn had 
 a conversation with a recluse of whom he says : " I felt 
 the power of a goodness which nothing I had met even 
 in Christendom surpassed; and though our faiths might 
 divide, the goodness had a strangely subduing and 
 unifying influence. We spoke about Hindu religion, 
 and I confessed that its immoral and barbarous worship 
 had shocked me ; but he inquired, with a plaintive and 
 reproachful look in his fine eyes, whether the religion 
 were without ethical qualities and forces. And as I 
 looked at him there in his retreat, so placid and 
 resigned, the perfect picture of peace attained and 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 435 
 
 enjoyed as remote from the smell, and the sounds, 
 and the mean symbolism of the temple as from the 
 hideous asceticism which drew the admiration of the 
 crowd what could I say but that there were, no doubt, 
 schools and persons who found somewhere within the 
 religion a moral power that could take out of the world, 
 if not lift above it ? " 
 
 Thus a Christian teacher, distinguished for learning, 
 goodness, and piety, and free from sectarian spirit, 
 expresses surprise at the goodness, and piety, and 
 spiritual calm of a Hindu ; quite forgetting that the 
 Hindu has the same access to the Creator, as Abraham, 
 and Moses, and David, and Isaiah, and all the great 
 Hebrews who saw the Archetypal Man by the exercise 
 of spiritual faculties which the Christian scholar hardly 
 recognises as his inheritance. Strange as it may seem > 
 the Brahman or the Buddhist may have a clearer vision 
 of the Christ than the " higher critic." It is not the 
 study of words, but solitary communion with the Creator 
 that reveals the Elohim, and the Archetypal Man. 
 
 Hinduism seems to depend upon temples, and priests, 
 and idols, and ceremonies, and traditions ; yet even 
 by pure Brahmanism these are recognised as mere 
 temporary crutches, which tend to cause atrophy of 
 the spiritual muscles, and which must be discarded by 
 him who would stand upon his feet as a child of God. 
 The wise and holy man of Hinduism is not the Brahman, 
 nor the observer of ceremonies and temple-worship ; 
 but is the fakir, with his wooden bowl, his dress of 
 patched cloth, his bed the earth, and his only covering 
 the sky indicating that he stands on the Level as a 
 
 F f 2 
 
436 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 man, and that no mortal nor ceremony may come 
 between him and his communion with the Creator. 
 It is when alone with God that the worshipper has 
 revealed to him the mystery of the Divine Mind as 
 the Three in One the A U M ; and by the exercise 
 of the Yoga, and meditation on the perfections and 
 relations of the Three in One, he obtains rest for the 
 soul, which all the riches and glory of the world cannot 
 bestow. 
 
 In the course of centuries Hinduism became very 
 corrupt. For every teacher with humility enough to 
 study and repeat the ancient wisdom there were 
 hundreds of vain dreamers anxious to glorify them- 
 selves by the invention of a new theory or a new 
 ritual observance. Professor Rhys Davids remarks : 
 " The priests were mostly well-meaning, well-con- 
 ducted, ignorant, superstitious, and inflated with a 
 sincere belief in their own divinity." Instead of 
 meditating on the Triad of Divine Forms the A U M 
 and on the Primeval Male, sacrificed to satisfy Divine 
 Justice, the Brahmans became engrossed in rites, and 
 forms, and ceremonies, . and incantations, and caste 
 privileges ; until the people found the burden too great 
 to bear, and were ready for the Reformer, who would 
 form again the Old Faith, and point men to The Way. 
 
 The history of religion is often written as if the 
 ancients were kept in " compounds " ; or as if they 
 had no love of learning, or gossip, or trade, or travel. 
 Birds sang, and children played, and young men sought 
 adventure before the days of Noah as they do now. 
 The world was young ; and it was free. 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 437 
 
 Monier Williams remarks: " It seems tolerably certain 
 that about five or six centuries before the commence- 
 ment of the Christian era, a mighty stir took place in 
 thinking minds throughout the then civilised world. 
 Thus when Buddha arose in India, Greece had her 
 thinkers in the followers of Pythagoras, Persia in those 
 of Zoroaster, China in those of Confucius." 
 
 The date of Zoroaster seems doubtful. Pythagoras 
 was born a few years after the destruction of Jerusalem 
 and dispersion of the Jews ; Buddha was contemporary 
 with Pythagoras, and Confucius was a generation or 
 two later. These three were scholars and travellers ; 
 and the dispersed Jews were disseminating the Primitive 
 Faith. One thousand years previous to this the 
 wisdom of Moses was common property for all who 
 wished to listen or to learn. Nearly five hundred years 
 before the birth of Buddha Solomon was ruling in 
 Jerusalem, and the Psalms of David had been stimu- 
 lating thinkers to glorify the Creator, and to seek 
 the Kingdom of Righteousness by worship of the 
 Archetypal Man. 
 
 Solomon was the ruler of a comparatively small 
 country ; and yet none of the powerful nations which 
 surrounded him ever exhibited any signs of hostility. 
 It was owing to the freedom from war that he was 
 enabled to accumulate enormous treasures, and to 
 devote his life to philosophy. There must have been 
 special reasons which prevented any of his neighbours 
 from indulging in the usual attempt to obtain plunder. 
 The fact seems to be that Solomon was not merely the 
 Anointed of the Lord in the eyes of the Jews, but was 
 
438 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 the Saint, or the Buddha, to whom all the world of 
 the East paid tribute as to the chief of religion on 
 earth. In 1 Kings x. 24, 25, we are informed that 
 " all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, 
 which God had put in his heart. And they brought 
 every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of 
 gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, 
 and mules, a rate year by year." This proves that he 
 was really a Buddha, or Enlightened One, for the 
 Eastern world, receiving offerings from the religious of 
 all lands. 
 
 The state of religion in distant lands about 1000 
 B.C. may be also inferred from the object with which 
 the Queen of Sheba made her famous visit to Solomon, 
 and from the language which she used in bidding him 
 farewell. We are informed that " when the Queen of 
 Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the 
 name of Jehovah, she came to prove him with hard 
 questions " ; and when taking her departure she said : 
 " Blessed be Jehovah thy God, which delighteth in 
 thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel : because 
 Jehovah loved Israel for ever, therefore made He thee 
 king, to do judgment and justice." Both the object 
 of her visit and the language she used prove that she 
 recognised the Elohim, or Creator, as Jehovah, the 
 Saviour. It is not at all probable that Solomon 
 neglected to supply her with copies of his father's 
 writings, as well as of the principal Jewish books 
 which he possessed ; so that to whatever country she 
 went the law of Moses and the religion of the Jews 
 would be carried. 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 439 
 
 The position which Solomon occupied with regard 
 to the various nations of the East is further shown by 
 his prayer at the dedication of the Temple ; for he 
 anticipates pilgrimages by strangers, as if the Temple 
 was the centre for all the religious world. In Chronicles 
 he is reported as saying : " Moreover, concerning the 
 stranger, which is not of Thy people Israel, but is come 
 from a far country for Thy great Name's sake, and Thy 
 mighty hand, and Thy stretched out arm ; if they come 
 and pray in this house ; then hear Thou from the 
 heavens, even from Thy dwelling place, and do accord- 
 ing to all that the stranger calleth to Thee for ; that all 
 people of the earth may know Thy name, and fear 
 Thee, as doth Thy people Israel, and may know that 
 this house which I have built is called by Thy Name." 
 The true worship of the Creator was in all nations. 
 
 Another cause which would assist to make the 
 writings and religion of the Jews universally known was 
 the relationship of Solomon to the King of Egypt ; for 
 he married Pharaoh's daughter, and all the wise men of 
 Egypt would feel it a duty to be perfectly familiar with 
 the religion of the famous son-in-law of their king. It 
 is said that Solomon " spake three thousand proverbs ; 
 and his songs were one thousand and five " ; and 
 Pharaoh would probably compel the little Egyptian 
 children to commit them to memory, since the sayings 
 of royalty come with authority even independent of 
 merit. 
 
 In the time of Solomon the condition of the arts 
 and manufactures, and the knowledge of mechanics, 
 was apparently superior to what we find in Asia or 
 
440 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Africa in modern times. The facilities for trade must 
 have been in proportion to the wealth and manufactures 
 of the nations ; and if at present caravans are constantly 
 passing from Persia to India, and from China to other 
 parts of Asia, and from Central Africa to Egypt, it is 
 absurd to suppose that the intercourse between the 
 different countries was not greater when their know- 
 ledge, and civilisation, and wealth were greater. The 
 Phoenicians had foreign trade before the time of Homer, 
 which is supposed to have been afterthe time of Solomon, 
 for Aristotle gives 850 B.C. as the date of Homer. 
 
 It is impossible to understand the history of religion 
 without a careful study of the writings of Moses, David, 
 and Solomon, and the relations of these writers to sur- 
 rounding nations. Hiram, King of Tyre, was one of 
 the most intimate friends which David had, and was 
 also a constant friend to Solomon. Now Hiram was 
 a very extensive shipowner and a man of wonderful 
 ability. His influence would be felt wherever his ships 
 went ; and though it is customary to regard him as 
 different from the Jews, he was much more a Hebrew 
 than the majority of Englishmen are Christians ; just 
 as many of the Kings of Egypt and Persia were 
 Hebrews in religion although not Jews in nationality. 
 The religion of Hiram is plainly enough proved by 
 his language when he heard that Solomon had been 
 anointed King; for he said in true Jewish style : " Blessed 
 be Jehovah this day, which hath given unto David a wise 
 son over this great people." The use of the word Jehovah 
 is proof that he was something more than a mere 
 adherent or admirer of the religion of the Jews, and 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 441 
 
 was conscious of the personal benevolent Fatherhood 
 of God, so that he was infinitely superior to a French 
 atheistic freemason. When Solomon built a navy at 
 a port on the Red Sea, it is stated that Hiram manned 
 the vessels for him with sailors from Tyre ; since the 
 Jews were an inland people, and the Phoenicians were 
 recognised by them as brethren. 
 
 The distance to which the ships of Solomon traded is 
 very important, and may be estimated by the recorded 
 fact that they went regularly on a three years' voyage, 
 which would easily take them to India, China, and the 
 Spice Islands. It is customary to imagine that Hiram 
 confined himself principally to local coasting trade, and 
 was unable to journey with confidence out of sight of 
 land ; but this is absurd, for the Phoenicians were able 
 to calculate their position by the stars ; and though 
 they would coast on a first voyage until they found out 
 how the land lay, they would boldly cross the Arabian 
 Sea, or go direct from the Red Sea to Ceylon as soon as 
 they had proved that land was to be met by crossing. 
 It was just as easy for their ships to go to China as 
 to go to Spain, and the man who can coast for fifty 
 miles may just as well coast for five thousand. Hence 
 the Phoenicians circumnavigated Africa, and Herodotus 
 records the fact without knowing it ; for the ships left 
 the Red Sea with Africa on their right hand and the 
 rising sun on their left, and they continued their course 
 with the land on their right until they arrived home by 
 the Straits of Gibraltar. During the latter part of the 
 voyage they maintained that the rising sun was on their 
 right although they still kept the land on their right ; 
 
442 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 and Herodotus set- this down as a sailor's yarn, and 
 says : " I for my own part do not believe them." They 
 may have gone to Ashanti as the Land of Ophir. 
 
 The Phoenicians were able to trade with Cornwall ; 
 and on one occasion vessels outside the Pillars of 
 Hercules were blown west to a beautiful island, which 
 was most probably Madeira, or one of the Canaries, and 
 the navigators were able to return home. Other vessels 
 may not have been so fortunate, and may have gone on 
 to the American coast. Although the recorded circum- 
 navigation of Africa was in the time of Pharaoh-Necho 
 (640 B.C.), we have no reason to suppose that any 
 Phoenician had ever better ships or sailors than those 
 of Hiram. The knowledge of the wisdom of Solomon 
 and of his religion would be carried wherever the ships 
 of Tyre went. 
 
 Rehoboam, the son and successor of Solomon, had 
 no personal knowledge of God ; and so he employed 
 aids to devotion in the form of idols, and made new 
 regulations instead of the moral law of Moses. The 
 King of Egypt appears to have considered that he had 
 a right, as father-in-law of Solomon, to see that the 
 worship of the God of Abraham was preserved in 
 purity ; for he went up to Jerusalem with a large 
 army, and took away all the " treasures of the house 
 of Jehovah, and of the King's house." 
 
 During the three hundred years after the reign of 
 Solomon the religion of the Jews was subject to many 
 periods of corruption, and sometimes the Sacred Books 
 were almost forgotten ; but the common people in 
 country districts no doubt went on learning the Law 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 443 
 
 and worshipping God according to their ancient cus- 
 tom, regardless of the fashions prevalent in the cities. 
 The historian who would mistake the religion and 
 manners of Charles the Second of England and his 
 Court for those of the nation, would be almost as 
 much mistaken as he who would regard the sentiments 
 of Ahab and Jezebel as those of the poor Jews who 
 tilled the soil ; since the wealthy and idle naturally 
 become corrupt, while those who gain their food by 
 toil remote from towns are less exposed to evil influ- 
 ences, and may have virtues preserved by the struggle 
 for existence. 
 
 About the year 720 B.C. Shalmaneser, King of Assyria, 
 took Samaria and carried away captive the Israelites, 
 or Ten Tribes, and distributed them throughout his 
 dominions, and particularly in the cities of the Medes ; 
 while he filled their places by strangers from various 
 parts, and we have the extraordinary statement that 
 he sent back one of the priests to teach these strangers 
 the Jewish religion. 
 
 As showing the state of religion in the world about 
 620 B.C., we are informed that Pharaoh-Necho, King 
 of Egypt, made war against the King of Assyria ; and 
 when Josiah, King of Judah, determined to assist the 
 Assyrians the King of Egypt said : " What have I to 
 do with thee, thou King of Judah ? I come not against 
 thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have 
 war ; for God commanded me to make haste : forbear 
 thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that He 
 destroy thee not." The King of Egypt recognised the 
 God of Right and Truth as supreme; and considered 
 
444 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 himself to be the servant of Jehovah quite as truly as 
 the Jews were. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, defeated the King 
 of Egypt about 600 B.C., and took all his possessions 
 as far as the Nile ; and then he took Jerusalem and 
 carried away all the principal inhabitants to Babylon. 
 Eleven years after this Jerusalem was burnt down and 
 the remainder of the people carried off, so that only 
 the poorest of the people remained in the land of 
 Judah ; and these soon abandoned their country owing 
 to its unprotected condition, and nearly all sought 
 refuge in Egypt. 
 
 Christians are generally disposed to think of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar as a heathen hostile to the Hebrews, 
 whereas he was a more righteous man than most of 
 the Kings of Jerusalem, and he appears to have been 
 enraged with Zedekiah for not being faithful to the 
 religion of Solomon. After the fall of Jerusalem he 
 gave orders that the most promising of the young 
 Hebrew captives should be educated at his expense in 
 order to fit them for positions of importance in the 
 government service. A strict Jew would consider him- 
 self defiled if he shared the dinner of the Czar of Russia 
 or the King of England. The absolute monarch of 
 Babylon regarded the offer of food from the royal table 
 as the highest honour, and yet he tolerated strict Jews, 
 and treated them as friends. Does not this prove that 
 he was in sympathy with the teaching of Moses ? 
 
 Daniel and his fellows were the most highly educated 
 men in the country, and probably excelled modern 
 scholars in knowledge of theology and metaphysics 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 445 
 
 and psychology. Symptoms of insanity would be 
 recognised by them in the conduct of the King ; and 
 when the distracted sufferer became bewildered and 
 frightened by dreams, Daniel was able to perceive the 
 drift of his thoughts, and the probable course of his 
 malady. The King was evidently profoundly sensible 
 of his responsibility to the Great Judge, while he was 
 at the same time extremely impressed with his own 
 importance ; and it was these convictions that made 
 him one of the greatest of monarchs, and Babylon one 
 of the most magnificent of cities. No ruler is fit for 
 his position if he has not due sense of his importance 
 and his responsibility ; but flattery and despotic power 
 increased pride to the point of insanity in the case of 
 Nebuchadnezzar, since there were no radicals, or 
 socialists, or anarchists to temper his despotism. 
 Thus he was ready to believe that he was the repre- 
 sentative of God on earth, or the Son of Heaven ; and 
 the courtly flattery of Daniel in calling him King of 
 Kings, specially appointed by God, was not likely to 
 make him humble. It must, however, be remembered 
 that many emperors and popes have had similar 
 notions of their own importance. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar determined with all his heart to 
 establish true religion, and he was convinced that 
 worship could be conducted in a more orderly manner 
 if the people had an image of some kind before them ; 
 so he lavished his wealth in making a magnificent 
 image which, from its cost alone, must have seemed 
 to him well pleasing to God, and which may have 
 been intended to represent the Archetypal Man. It 
 
446 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 was only what a wealthy Russian does when decorating 
 an ikon, or a wealthy Catholic in setting up a beautiful 
 image of a saint. Men need to be compelled to worship 
 in solitude on the bare mountain or the open ocean ; 
 for vanity prompts them to fancy that the favour of 
 God may be gained by wealth, or skill, or physical 
 toil, or bodily contortions. 
 
 With the spiritual fervour of a religious despot the 
 King consigned the three Hebrews to the flames for 
 their disobedience of the ritualistic order. He would 
 not spare his dearest friends if they refused to kneel at 
 the prescribed signal ; and men have been murdered 
 in lands called Christian because they would not kneel 
 to an idol when a bell sounded or some signal was 
 given. Whatever the explanation of the trial by the 
 fiery furnace may be found to be by future discoveries 
 in the records of Babylon, there can be no doubt that 
 the King showed his knowledge of primitive religion, 
 and his reverence for the Archetypal Man, when he 
 exclaimed that he saw a fourth man walking in the midst 
 of the flames, whose form was " like the Son of God." 
 
 Few rulers have been more truly worshippers of the 
 Creator as Supreme Governor than the great King of 
 Babylon ; and many kings called Christian have been 
 impious, false, and tyrannical. Modern monarchs and 
 presidents would do well to study the last words 
 ascribed to the great King of Babylon. " Now I, 
 Nebuchadnezzar, praise, and extol, and honour the 
 King of Heaven ; for all His works are truth, and His 
 ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is 
 able to abase." 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 447 
 
 Was there some new development of human nature, 
 or some evolution of ideas, that enabled Babylon to 
 attain such an eminent position in history ? Civilisa- 
 tion and stability of government depend on religion ; 
 and there is only one religion that can elevate humanity. 
 Babylon became great because its rulers cherished 
 the essentials of the primitive religion, which taught 
 them to worship the Just Creator and the Archetypal 
 Man. 
 
 Daniel, the Hebrew, was virtually the ruler of Baby- 
 lonia during the later years of Nebuchadnezzar; and 
 a decree was issued in the usual despotic style com- 
 manding all people to worship the Almighty as the 
 Hebrews worshipped Him. Thus it is certain that 
 knowledge of the teaching of Moses, and David, and 
 Solomon, must have been general wherever the influence 
 of Babylon extended. In what part of the earth was 
 that influence not felt ? 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded in 561 B.C. by his son 
 Evil-Merodach, who was murdered after a reign of five 
 years. In 556 B.C. the throne was seized by Nabonidus, 
 a military usurper ; and, as true religion was neglected, 
 corruption and dissension increased until the King had 
 to appoint his son Belshazzar to occupy the throne as 
 his deputy. The son proved no better than his father ; 
 and after a year or two the worshippers of the Creator 
 as God of Truth and Right became so disgusted with 
 the debauchery of the Court that they seem to have 
 invited Cyrus the Persian to deliver them from their 
 worthless rulers. Daniel and the Jews would naturally 
 be leaders in any conspiracy against the blasphemous 
 
448 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 idolaters ; and Cyrus had no difficulty in taking 
 Babylon. 
 
 It would seem that Nabonidus went with the army 
 to oppose the Persians under Cyrus, and was defeated 
 by them ; while Belshazzar remained to defend the city, 
 which was invested by an army under Darius, the Mede, 
 who was appointed by Cyrus to be governor of the 
 captured city with the title of King. The Book of 
 Daniel says: ''And Darius, the Mede, received the 
 Kingdom, being about three score and two years old." 
 It is also said : " So this Daniel prospered in the reign 
 of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian." In 
 another place it is said that Darius " was made King 
 over the realm of the Chaldeans." 
 
 The Book of Daniel describes Belshazzar as son and 
 successor of Nebuchadnezzar ; but the term father 
 was applied to any respected superior or predecessor. 
 Darius is spoken of as conqueror and King of Babylon 
 though he was only the subordinate of Cyrus. 
 
 The Hebrews were quite in the background during 
 the reign of Nabonidus, and the regency of his son 
 Belshazzar ; for they were no doubt supporters of the 
 family of Nebuchadnezzar against the usurpers, and 
 occupied a position somewhat similar to that of the 
 Puritans, under Charles the Second and James the 
 Second. As the Puritans called on William of Orange 
 to deliver them, so the Hebrews of Babylonia called on 
 Cyrus. The treatment that Daniel received from the 
 conqueror was very significant, and leads to the suspicion 
 that Belshazzar had been encouraged by false news, 
 and was celebrating the victory of Nabonidus over 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 449 
 
 Cyrus, while Daniel and the Jews had private informa- 
 tion of the triumph of the Persians and the approach 
 of the victorious army. The first thing Darius did was 
 to make Daniel supreme over all the princes of the 
 empire ; which proved that there were very special 
 reasons for regarding the Jews with friendship and 
 gratitude, and also proves that the Medes and Persians 
 were in sympathy with the Hebrew religion. 
 
 It may be said that Daniel was a hypocrite when he 
 ascribed the overthrow of Babylon to the indignation 
 of Jehovah while he himself was the chief conspirator ; 
 but the ancients saw much more clearly than modern 
 scholars who do not look to God for guidance. They 
 looked beyond the law to the Law-giver ; and would 
 not have spoken of a printing machine as producing 
 a book. They would have seen the worker, no 
 matter how many intermediate instruments he was 
 employing. 
 
 The princes of the Medes were naturally enraged at 
 the high position given to the stranger, and they made 
 a plot to compel the King to condemn Daniel. This 
 Darius may have been a descendant of some woman 
 of the Ten Tribes who had been placed in the cities 
 of the Medes nearly two hundred years before, and 
 who had married a Mede ; for he was certainly to all 
 intents and purposes a Hebrew, though not a Jew. 
 
 When he found that Daniel was condemned by the 
 royal decree, we are told that " the King was sore dis- 
 pleased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to 
 deliver him; and he laboured till the going down of the 
 sun to deliver him." When assured that he dare not 
 
 o.m. G G 
 
450 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 alter the law to shield a friend, he remarked to Daniel : 
 " Thy God, whom thou servest continually, He will 
 deliver thee"; and after a sleepless night we have 
 him calling to Daniel as the servant of "the living 
 God." As a conclusion to the matter we are informed 
 that he " wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, 
 that dwell in the earth : Peace be multiplied unto you. 
 I make a decree, that in every dominion of my kingdom 
 men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel : for He 
 is the living God, and steadfast for ever, and His 
 kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and His 
 dominion shall be even unto the end." There can be 
 no doubt that all the dominions of Darius were kept 
 in remembrance of the religion of Daniel. 
 
 Cyrus is first referred to in the Bible about 550 B.C. ; 
 and his first act is that of a Hebrew. Ezra the Scribe 
 relates that he " made a proclamation throughout all 
 his kingdom," and put it also in writing, saying, " Thus 
 saith Cyrus, King of Persia : Jehovah, God of Heaven, 
 hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth ; and He 
 hath charged me to build Him an house at Jerusalem, 
 which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all His 
 people ? his God be with him, and let him go up to 
 Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of 
 Jehovah, God of Israel." This proclamation would 
 never have been made if Cyrus had believed in any 
 religion except the Jewish ; and he must have had 
 firmer belief in a personal God than some modern 
 scholars possess. He could not have been like those 
 Englishmen who are quite satisfied that their religion 
 is true, and that every other religion is false, though 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 451 
 
 they never really claim to be Christians. He had 
 definite belief. 
 
 All the vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar 
 had taken from the Temple at Jerusalem Cyrus returned 
 to the Jews to take back again ; and he kept Daniel as 
 his counsellor : so that a Hebrew spiritualism must have 
 been the official religion of all the Persian Empire. 
 Cyrus proved his religion and his zeal in all his wars, 
 for wherever he went it was to carry out to the letter 
 the order of Moses to root out idolaters, " to destroy 
 their altars, break their images, and cut down their 
 groves " ; and the Greeks were not left in any doubt as 
 to his opinions, for in his wars with them in Asia Minor 
 whenever a shrine, or altar, or symbol of idolatry was 
 found it was destroyed. 
 
 It may be said that the Temple of Jerusalem was a 
 shrine similar to those that Cyrus destroyed ; but at the 
 dedication of it Solomon took care to leave no room for 
 belief in any local gods, for he said : " But will God 
 indeed dwell on the earth ? Behold, the heaven and 
 heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee ; how much 
 less this house that I have builded ? " Lest the people 
 should fix on any material object to worship, he begins 
 his dedication address by saying : " Jehovah hath said 
 that He would dwell in the thick darkness." 
 
 The extent of the influence of Cyrus must be carefully 
 studied in order to appreciate the wide-spread recogni- 
 tion of the Primitive Faith. All the Greek cities in Asia 
 Minor were subject to Croesus, but Cyrus defeated 
 Croesus and took possession of all Asia Minor, and 
 probably of the adjacent islands; so that any decree 
 
 G G 2 
 
452 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 made by him must have been perfectly well known to 
 all the Greeks ; and as Phoenicia was also subject to 
 him, his decrees and opinions on religious questions 
 must have been taken as common gossip wherever 
 Phoenician sailors went. Whether he was at peace or 
 war with Egypt, his opinions on religion would be 
 known through all its provinces ; and when it was 
 conquered by his son Cambyses, those opinions would 
 be carried by traders to every part of Africa. 
 
 Darius, the son of Hystaspes, obtained the throne of 
 Persia in 521 B.C., and he is thought to be the King 
 who commissioned Ezra to renew the building of 
 Jerusalem, which had been interrupted during the reigns 
 of Cyrus and Cambyses. This interruption was not 
 due to any hostility of the Persian rulers to the Jews, 
 but to the dissensions at Jerusalem ; and these dis- 
 sensions are easily understood from the history of the 
 Jews. 
 
 A comparatively small number of Jews had any wish 
 to return to Jerusalem. They had wealth where they 
 were. Nearly all those left in the land of Judah had 
 abandoned their country in a body and had gone to 
 Egypt, which thus became far more the centre of the 
 Jewish race than Palestine itself; though Central Asia 
 probably contained very many of the descendants of the 
 Ten Tribes, as well as the descendants of those carried 
 to Babylon. The land of Judah had become filled with 
 strangers ; and the land of Israel had been filled with 
 strangers by the Assyrians, so that the inhabitants of 
 the country had much the same feeling towards the 
 Jews as modern settlers would have towards exiles 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 453 
 
 wishing to recover the land of their fathers. This was 
 the reason that Nehemiah had to build with the one 
 hand while he held his sword in the other. Then the 
 Jews had fallen into the common custom of inter- 
 marrying with their neighbours, so that when Ezra 
 found a real Jew, he was surrounded by a family of 
 unbelievers ; and this custom of taking wives regardless 
 of religion had gone so far that the very priests and the 
 Levites were guilty, and the princes and rulers were 
 amongst the worst offenders. Ezra, like a good Jew, 
 rent his garment and plucked out his hair in the 
 extremity of his grief. 
 
 It may be that Xerxes, or Artaxerxes Longimanus, 
 was the ruler who assisted Ezra, but there is no reason 
 to doubt that Darius Hystaspes maintained the same 
 benevolent attitude towards Judaism which was dis- 
 played by Cyrus ; though his wars prevented any serious 
 consideration of religious questions, and he was pro- 
 bably content to let some Jew like Daniel look after his 
 spiritual welfare, as many great individuals in Christian 
 countries are in the habit of going through their routine 
 duty and leaving the clergyman to be responsible for 
 their spiritual guidance. Darius may have been as 
 little of a Hebrew as Napoleon Bonaparte was of a 
 Christian ; but to all the world of idolaters he would 
 appear a Jew, as Napoleon appeared a Christian. 
 
 With regard to the extent of the influence of Darius 
 Hystaspes, it is certain that he led an army across the 
 Danube about 513 B.C., and that he appointed Histaeus, 
 tyrant of Miletus, to be governor of Thrace, as a reward 
 for his services in protecting the bridge by which the 
 
454 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Persians retreated. In 510 B.C. Calisthenes, on behalf 
 of Athens, made a treaty by which the supremacy of 
 the Persian Kings was acknowledged, and the islands 
 of Greece were subject to Darius ; so that they were 
 not likely to be left in ignorance of the writings and 
 opinions of the Jews. A Persian army under Mar- 
 donius crossed the Hellespont and entered Thrace ; but 
 retreated, as the fleet which was to co-operate with it 
 was wrecked off Mount Athos. Then again in 490 B.C. 
 Darius sent an expedition against Greece by sea, and 
 on landing at Marathon his soldiers were defeated by 
 Miltiades. 
 
 The conduct of Darius in sending enormous armies 
 into Europe proves that he had no enemies in Central 
 Asia, or in Northern India ; and Herodotus records 
 that he conquered India in 500 B.C. Even if he were 
 on ordinary terms of friendship with India, which he 
 must have been if it was not subject to him, the 
 constant intercourse of traders would make the opinions 
 of the Persian King a matter of common gossip in every 
 Indian village. If Germany were sufficiently powerful 
 to send an army of half a million as far as Persia, it 
 might reasonably be concluded that such an expedition 
 would not be sent unless the friendship or subjection 
 of France had been previously secured. 
 
 The mother of Xerxes, son of Darius Hystaspes, was 
 the daughter of Cyrus, which would render it fairly 
 certain that he received a good education in all the 
 learning of the Jews ; though he may have been as 
 little entitled to be called a Hebrew as a modern 
 despot is to be called a Christian. Xerxes began to 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 455 
 
 reign in 486 B.C., and in the third year of his reign he 
 assembled his famous expedition against Greece, which 
 went into winter quarters at Sardis in 481 B.C. over 
 one million strong, according to the best historians. 
 Forty-six nations are said to have been represented in 
 this army, while the fleet assembled in the Mediter- 
 ranean to co-operate with the army was composed of 
 1,200 triremes and 3,000 transports. When Xerxes 
 retreated from Greece he must have been abandoned 
 by many thousands of his followers, who would be 
 scattered throughout Europe; and may have sought 
 safety in the lake-dwellings of Switzerland, or in caves 
 described as " prehistoric." Wherever these fugitives 
 went some of the religious knowledge of the Jews must 
 have gone along with them ; for although the Jews 
 seem to have lost the favour of the King, this does not 
 imply that he had any religious belief except that of 
 Daniel and the Jews who ruled during the reigns of 
 Cyrus and Darius. The anxiety of Mordecai to con- 
 ceal his nationality is easily explained by supposing 
 that the position of the Jews under Darius and Xerxes 
 was very similar to that which they occupy under the 
 Czar of Russia. 
 
 Xerxes is the Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther ; the 
 name Ahasuerus having apparently been applied to 
 several kings of Persia. Herodotus states that, in the 
 third year of his reign, Xerxes celebrated a great feast, 
 at which he assembled all his princes and allies in 
 order to decide on the plan of campaign against 
 Greece. The Book of Esther states that " in the third 
 year of his reign, he made a feast unto all his princes 
 
456 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 and servants; the power of Persia and Media, the 
 nobles and princes of the provinces, being before him : 
 when he showed the riches of his glorious kingdom 
 and the honour of his excellent majesty many days, 
 even an hundred and four score days." The feast, or 
 assembling of his princes, thus lasted half a year, and 
 at the end of this time he made a grand feast for 
 seven days " unto all the people that were present in 
 Shushan the palace, both unto great and small ; while 
 Vashti the queen made a feast for the women in the 
 royal house which belonged to King Ahasuerus." At 
 this feast the matrimonial quarrel arose which filled 
 the nobles of the empire with alarm lest an agitation 
 should be made for women's rights : and a royal 
 decree was issued to prevent female revolt, and to 
 insist that " all the wives shall give to their husbands 
 honour, both to great and small." 
 
 The Bible is silent regarding the events of the next 
 three years, during which the King met with his 
 misfortunes in Greece ; but in the sixth year of his 
 reign it observes that "the wrath of King Ahasuerus 
 was appeased," and there is the peculiar observation 
 that " he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, 
 and what was decreed against her." The war with 
 the Greeks had been quite enough to occupy his 
 mind during the intervening three years, and on his 
 return there is no mention of rejoicing or triumph, 
 for the returning army must have been as little dis- 
 posed to boast and rejoice as that of Russia after the 
 war in Manchuria. 
 
 Herodotus relates that on his return to Persia, Xerxes 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 457 
 
 occupied himself with the affairs of his harem ; and 
 this corresponds to the order in the Book of Esther 
 given to assemble fair young virgins from all the pro- 
 vinces that a successor might be appointed to the 
 rebellious Vashti. A whole year was required for the 
 work of selection, and the governors of the provinces 
 in Egypt and Asia Minor would require many months 
 in order to carry out the command of the King ; so it 
 is related in the Bible that " Esther was taken unto 
 King Ahasuerus into his house royal in the tenth 
 month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh 
 year of his reign." 
 
 Xerxes may possibly have blamed his Jewish subjects 
 as the cause of all his disasters, since a despot must 
 have someone to accuse and to disgrace when he 
 makes any blunder. Poor Jews may have been eager 
 to urge the complete conquest of Greece in order to 
 destroy all idols to be found on earth ; but it seems 
 fairly certain that rich Jews who had financed the 
 great expedition would importune the King and his 
 minister Haman in order to obtain payment of the 
 money advanced. 
 
 Although Mordecai concealed the nationality and 
 religion of Esther, the enemies of the Jews must have 
 known quite well what she was, and what the probable 
 consequences of her influence on the King would be. 
 It is not likely that a despot like Haman, with the 
 command of innumerable spies, would be ignorant 
 of the history of the Queen and the nationality of 
 Mordecai ; but instead of punishing Mordecai, he 
 plotted to destroy all the Jews along with him. 
 
458 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Haman might thus have settled his own debts ; and 
 he may have attained his position by a previous 
 massacre of Jews. Russians would hardly tolerate 
 a Jewish Queen. 
 
 When Xerxes signed the decree for the massacre of 
 the Jews he evidently had no idea what people were 
 condemned by it ; for after signing the decree he gave 
 the orders to bestow the highest possible honours on 
 Mordecai, though actually calling him " the Jew." 
 The writer of the Book of Esther innocently observes 
 that the King was unable to sleep, and commanded 
 the records of the kingdom to be read to him ; but 
 Esther, no doubt, took care to disturb his rest, and 
 to find the passage in the records which was particularly 
 interesting to her. 
 
 It was the policy of Haman to pretend ignorance of 
 the nationality of the Queen so as to secure her death 
 by the decree, which the King would not be willing 
 to alter, or perhaps dare not alter, according to the 
 custom of the country; but the counter-plot of the 
 Jews proved successful, and Esther became supreme, 
 so that express messengers were sent by Xerxes to all 
 his one hundred and twenty-seven provinces restoring 
 the Jews to their positions of power, and commanding 
 all the forces of the empire to assist them against 
 their enemies. The power of the Jews is evidenced 
 by their ability to slay 75,000 of their opponents. 
 From that time Esther, Mordecai, and the Jews were 
 the rulers of the Persian Empire, which extended from 
 India to Greece and from Egypt to China. 
 
 Artaxerxes Longimanus began to reign in 465 B.C., 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 459 
 
 and he is believed to be the Artaxerxes who com- 
 missioned Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem. It is 
 recorded that when Nehemiah was explaining to the 
 King the ruinous condition of Jerusalem, "the Queen 
 also was sitting by him " ; and we may feel certain that 
 if she believed in any religion except the Jewish, there 
 would have been no favourable audience given to Nehe- 
 miah. Both the King and Queen took a personal 
 interest in the attempt to restore Jerusalem to some 
 of its former importance, and letters were sent to the 
 governors of provinces to furnish necessary material 
 for the work ; while Nehemiah was made governor of 
 Judah for twelve years. Considering the character of 
 Nehemiah, and the intense enthusiasm with which he 
 tried to overcome every obstacle to the progress of his 
 religion, there can be no doubt that he lost no oppor- 
 tunity of displaying his devotion to the Law of Moses ; 
 and the mere fact of such a man being in the confi- 
 dential position of cup-bearer to the King, and being 
 granted audiences of the Queen, is sufficient proof that 
 both King and Queen were Hebrews in religion. 
 
 Ancient heathen writers could not understand what 
 the religion of the Persians was ; and if a Hindu or 
 Chinese were taken to a meeting of Quakers he would 
 be very doubtful whether the Quakers have any religion 
 whatever ; while if he went to a ritualistic church he 
 might conclude that the people worshipped a crucifix, 
 or even that they worshipped the sun, since he would 
 observe that they bowed to the East ; and he would 
 excuse their bowing to the sun without seeing it on 
 the ground that the clouds of the country make the 
 
460 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 apparent neglect a necessity. All his difficulty would 
 be solved if the candles on the Communion Table were 
 lit, since they would represent the sun ; and he could 
 have no doubt that he was in the presence of fire- 
 worshippers, or worshippers of Baal, the sun-god. Yet 
 the foreign historian of England would be mistaken ; 
 and the foreign historians of Persia have been similarly 
 mistaken. Herodotus gives a fair account of their 
 religion when he says that they worshipped Zeus on 
 the summits of the mountains, and called the whole 
 circle of the heavens by the name of Zeus. The Greek 
 historian could not understand the worship of God as 
 a Spirit in the heavens ; and some modern Europeans 
 scholars are equally stupid. 
 
 It is often assumed that the Zoroastrians were repre- 
 sentatives of the religion of Persia, but this is impossible; 
 for Herodotus expressly mentions the custom of the 
 Persians in carefully burying their dead, while the 
 Zoroastrians regard burial as profanation of the earth. 
 There is the positive evidence of tombs carefully cut in 
 the rocks at Persepolis, as was the Jewish custom ; and 
 one of these tombs is believed to be that of Darius 
 himself. An essential part of the Zoroastrian religion 
 is belief in the great evil spirit called Ahriman ; whereas 
 there is no mention of such a spirit in the religious 
 formulae engraved by Darius and Xerxes on the rocks 
 at Persepolis. 
 
 What was Buddhism ? Had Gautama, the Buddha, 
 any original message for mankind ? Had he clearer 
 views of the Creator and the Ideal Man than primitive 
 teachers ? Had he made any discovery regarding the 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR. ARCHETYPAL MAN. 461 
 
 nature of man, and the means of satisfying the longings 
 of the soul ? 
 
 Buddha was son of a King in Northern India ; and 
 the date of his death is given as 543 B.C. He travelled 
 for his education, and was at one school where there 
 were five hundred pupils. When he was a youth 
 Babylon was at the height of its glory under Nebuchad- 
 nezzar, and the Jews were carried away from Jerusalem. 
 Is it possible that a distinguished wealthy student in 
 Northern India was ignorant of the religion that pre- 
 vailed in Persia and Babylon ? Jews must have been 
 well known travellers scattered over Asia and Africa, as 
 well as over Southern Europe. 
 
 No man can understand the religion of Hebrews, or 
 the worship of Jehovah, by merely studying it as an 
 intellectual exercise. Buddha may have learned much 
 of the legislation of Moses and the wisdom of Solomon, 
 but he had no sure vision of the Creator as a Personal 
 God. He appreciated the determination of Abraham to 
 regard consecration to God as more important than 
 anything on earth, and he followed the example of 
 Abraham in making the Great Renunciation ; but he 
 did not seek guidance from Jehovah, and so deserted 
 his wife and son. He had not the inspiration to know 
 that he who provides not for his own is worse than an 
 infidel. The religion of Buddha was superior to any 
 that can be produced by modern philosophers who try 
 to invent theories for themselves without learning from 
 primitive man ; but the Buddha did not attempt to 
 produce any new religion. He regarded himself as a 
 Hindu, striving to recall the Brahmans and Hindus to 
 
462 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 the pure Primitive Faith. His moral code was simply 
 derived from the teaching of the ancient Hebrews and 
 Egyptians ; and the Hindu Reformation of Buddha 
 may be regarded as the result of the diffusion of 
 Hebrew literature, and as no more original than the 
 appeal of Luther to the teaching of the Primitive 
 Church. It is certain that within forty years of the 
 date given as the death of Buddha the Punjab was con- 
 tributing a large revenue to Darius Hystaspes, King of 
 Persia ; and it is certain that the most clever and learned 
 men in Persia were Jews, so that Hebrew ideas were 
 permeating all Asia. Sects existed, no doubt. 
 
 Buddha did not profess to be the Light, or the 
 Living Water ; but his followers claim that he was 
 so enlightened that he was able to shoot the Arrow 
 of Imagination to the spot where the River of Healing 
 would be found to give rest to the soul. 
 
 With regard to Confucius, who is said to have died 
 about 478 B.C., he was a native of Northern China, he 
 was very fond of philosophical studies, he was wealthy 
 enough to indulge his inclinations for travelling, and he 
 went so far in his search for wisdom that he was absent 
 from home for some years. Where would he be likely 
 to go except to Persia ? The Chinese have always been 
 most peaceably disposed, and they had no quarrel with 
 Persia ; so that the traders of Central Asia would pass 
 freely between the two nations. It is quite probable 
 that Confucius listened at Persepolis to the reading of 
 the Law of Moses, or the Excellent Way. 
 
 Who were the Zoroastrians ? They were certainly 
 not the Persians who were in any authority between 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 463 
 
 the time of Darius the Mede and the destruction of 
 Persepolis by Alexander the Great. They are supposed 
 to have been a tribe of the Medes, and are sometimes 
 called Magi ; but their Sacred Book, called the Zend- 
 Avesta, was compiled, according to the best authorities, 
 some time after the destruction of Persepolis, and 
 possibly even as late as the second or third century of 
 the Christian era. It is believed to have been compiled 
 from ancient fragments of writings which had been lost, 
 or even from traditions handed down merely by memory. 
 The Parsis say that their Sacred Books were destroyed 
 by Alexander the Great ; but any Sacred Books he 
 burned at Persepolis must have been permeated by the 
 theology of the Jews. Parsis are merely lost Hebrews. 
 The Zend-Avesta has been regarded as very ancient 
 because it contains much that is childish, silly, and 
 ridiculous ; but experience of modern life does not tend 
 to prove that all the fools were confined to periods of 
 very great antiquity. The history of the Jews, like the 
 history of all ages, proves that the great difficulty is to 
 prevent men from inventing superstitions that are 
 childish, silly, and ridiculous ; and modern philosophers 
 are only preserved from plunging into adoration of 
 frogs, or devils, or horse-shoes, or of themselves, by the 
 constant dread of public ridicule, and the surrounding 
 knowledge of the Primitive Faith. Centuries are not 
 necessary for the invention of a book of superstitions, 
 or an elaborate system of idolatry. One ignorant person 
 with a lively imagination may invent more stories in 
 a few months than all the wise men of the world will 
 understand through all eternity. 
 
464 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Those who compiled the Zend-Avesta are entitled 
 to the greatest respect, since they appear to have been 
 sincerely desirous of preserving what they believed to 
 be a special guide for the world; and what was certainly 
 far superior to any teaching which they could see among 
 the Hindus. Many of the dispersed Ten Tribes of Israel 
 must have lost all records of their religion, but had 
 inherited traditions which taught them the equality of 
 all men before God, the worship of God as a spirit 
 without the intervention of priests, and a special 
 abhorrence of all idolatry. When they attempted to 
 compile into one volume the fragments of ancestral 
 wisdom they were unable to distinguish the foolish 
 imaginations of the various sects from the pure 
 teaching of the Hebrews. 
 
 The time that has elapsed since Chaucer wrote seems 
 very great, and yet is not 700 years. The wisdom of 
 Moses and the Egyptians was all taught in public more 
 than one thousand years before the Buddha was born. 
 The Law was not merely written in books, it was 
 regularly committed to memory. Everyone knew it. 
 This explains the language of Moses when he refuses 
 to accept any plea of ignorance : " The commandment 
 which is written in this book of the Law is not hidden 
 from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven 
 that thou shouldest say, Who will go up for us 
 to heaven, and bring it unto us that we may 
 hear it, and do it. Neither is it beyond the sea, 
 that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the 
 sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may 
 hear it, and do it. But the word is very nigh unto 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 465 
 
 thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest 
 do it." 
 
 Although Thibet is regarded as a special land of 
 Buddhism, the religion which has been taught, or the 
 system which has been upheld, by the Grand Lamas 
 for many centuries is a development of sacerdotalism, 
 which has no place in orthodox Buddhism. Buddha 
 in his theories left no place for priests ; though he 
 recognised a distinction between men devoted to 
 religion, and those content to be so-called laymen. 
 In Thibet there is a Grand Lama in a vast palace, 
 who is the political and religious head of the country; 
 so that the Grand Lama tries to be to Buddhism 
 what the Pope of Rome tries to be to Catholicism. 
 There are dignitaries of the Church next to the Grand 
 Lama who seem to be a close imitation of cardinals ; 
 while beneath them there are various orders very similar 
 to those of the Roman Church. There are monasteries 
 and nunneries, celibate priests, and apparently holy 
 water ; while there is the practice of auricular confes- 
 sion, belief in the intercession of saints, and there are 
 regulations for periodical fasts, and for the washing of 
 feet. There is a doctrine of purgatory, so that the 
 priests have a source of revenue in the offerings of the 
 faithful to secure assistance for the release of their 
 departed friends from torment. The most famous 
 priests are canonised ; and Buddha is simply recognised 
 as the first of the saints. The transmigration of souls 
 is taught, since it is an essential part of Buddhism ; 
 but it does not seem to occupy a very prominent 
 position in the thoughts of the worshippers. 
 o.m. H H 
 
466 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 After some quotations from Hindu teaching, Monier 
 Williams says: " This beautiful poem offers, as we have 
 seen, numerous parallels to passages in our own sacred 
 Scriptures. But if we examine the writings and 
 recorded sayings of three great Roman philosophers, 
 Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, we shall find 
 them also full of similar resemblances, while there 
 appears to be no ground whatever for supposing that 
 these eminent pagan writers and thinkers derived any 
 of their ideas from either Jewish or Christian sources." 
 
 This is a striking example of the influence of prejudice 
 in distorting facts and obscuring truth. 
 
 Where did the alphabets, and words, and ideas come 
 from that nourished Greek and Roman philosophers ? 
 One might as well fancy an educated Frenchman to 
 be under no obligations to the writers of the time of 
 Louis the Fourteenth, or an educated Englishman to 
 be independent of the influence of the Bible, as fancy 
 that any educated Greek or Roman was not indebted 
 to the Egyptians and to the Hebrews. The atmo- 
 sphere was full of the ancient influence. There was 
 no original religious or moral teaching in Greece or 
 Rome ; but merely the debasement and corruption of 
 the Primitive Faith. 
 
 It is of the highest importance to study the methods 
 adopted by the devil to prevent men from seeing Truth. 
 The attention may simply be kept distracted so that 
 there is no time or inclination to seek to discover it ; 
 or there may be the loud assertion that there is nothing 
 to be seen, and that the agnostic is the wise man. 
 Perhaps the commonest device is to interpose a number 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 467 
 
 of prejudices, so that the truth is distorted into various 
 forms ; and the great advantage of this method, from 
 the devil's point of view, is that by means of it the 
 most sincere and earnest men can be induced to fight 
 among themselves, so that they lose sight of Truth 
 altogether in their anger at the monstrosities appar- 
 ently set up in its place. Chinese philosophers were 
 made to believe that all Europeans were barbarians ; 
 and there are even yet Europeans who believe that 
 the Chinese are inferior in civilisation. Many scholars 
 were kept under the delusion that ancient nations lived 
 apart as if in the watertight compartments of a great 
 vessel ; and thus Greek language and religion were 
 regarded as somehow springing into existence like a 
 tree in a desert where there never had been any seed. 
 A little knowledge of history shows that the ancestors 
 of Greek philosophers may have been workmen em- 
 ployed by Hiram to build the Temple of Solomon, 
 where they came under the educative influence of 
 Egypt and Babylon, and may have listened every day 
 to discussions on the Law of Moses and the Psalms of 
 David. Hebrew worship may have been as puzzling 
 to the Greek workmen as it is to modern agnostic 
 scholars ; but the most stupid would carry back with 
 them some knowledge of the Heaven-Father, the God 
 of Truth and Right. By clever perversion of vision 
 and judgment the devil induced teachers of Christianity 
 to devote special attention to the study of Greek myth- 
 ology and Roman legends rather than the study of the 
 Bible ; and men with knowledge of Greek and Latin 
 were appointed professors of theology though unable 
 
 H H 2 
 
468 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 to appreciate the Doctrine of the Trinity, or to see the 
 spiritual significance of such parables as those of Noah 
 and Jonah. 
 
 Solon, the great Athenian lawgiver, lived four hundred 
 years after Solomon, and was in his youth a trader and 
 traveller. Is it possible that he was ignorant of the 
 Mosaic Law or of the Hebrew religion ? Socrates and 
 Plato knew the longing for the appearance of the 
 Divine Helper to lead the people in the paths of 
 righteousness. Aristotle was the friend of kings, and 
 the tutor of his early life was a native of Asia Minor. 
 Could any Greek of intelligence and education in the 
 time of Aristotle be ignorant of the philosophy and 
 religion of Persia, or Egypt, or Babylon ? 
 
 The scholars, and traders, and soldiers were not 
 dumb in ancient times ; and Alexander the Great did 
 not traverse Asia as an ignorant despot. The teaching 
 of the primitive Egyptians had enlightened the world ; 
 and the flood of knowledge flowed again and again 
 from Asia over Greece and Rome. Virgil imbibed so 
 much of the spirit of Hebrew poetry and prophecy that 
 he was almost as conscious of the approach of the 
 Perfect One as the peasants in Asia who were looking 
 for the Messiah. The pure in heart are always able 
 to see God. 
 
 The civilisation and duration of an empire depends 
 on the truth of its religion. What nation can boast 
 the longest history of unity and culture ? China is 
 supposed to be looking to Europe and America for 
 guidance ; and the Chinese envoys acknowledge their 
 inferiority in the manufacture of engines of warfare. 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 469 
 
 Do they acknowledge inferiority in moral culture, or 
 in religious ideals ? 
 
 Lao Tze and Confucius are often said to be the 
 original religious guides of China ; but Taoism was 
 the religion long before either of these teachers was 
 born. Taoism points to The Way; and Shintoism 
 points to The Way. 
 
 Confucius was no more the originator of Chinese 
 religion than Shakespeare was the originator of English 
 language. All true moral teaching assumes, as a matter 
 of course, duty to the Supreme Being, and individual 
 worship of the Infinite Spirit. The worship of the 
 Archetypal Man is implied ; and Confucius taught that 
 the Will of God, and the characteristics of the Ideal 
 Man, must be sought in the moral principles of man's 
 nature. The emperor was " Son of Heaven," or, 
 " emperor by the grace of God"; and all human 
 authority was thus acknowledged to depend upon 
 identity with the Divine W^ill. The ruler forfeited his 
 authority when he acted contrary to the Will of God. 
 How could any people honour their ruler as " Son of 
 Heaven," if they did not thoroughly believe in a 
 Supreme Being ? 
 
 The wonderful endurance of the Chinese Empire is 
 due to its foundation on Truth and Right. Sir Robert 
 Hart writes of the Chinese : " They believe in right 
 so firmly that they scorn to think it requires to be 
 supported or enforced by might"; and that "they 
 are generous, charitable, and fond of good works " ; 
 and that " in no country that is or was has the com- 
 mandment, ' Honour thy father and thy mother,' been 
 
470 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 so religiously obeyed, or so fully and without exception 
 given effect to." Hence " their days are long in the 
 land God has given them." 
 
 Such is the testimony of the Christian who sees 
 clearly, and who knows the Chinese better than any 
 other European. A different testimony is given by 
 those who judge the Chinese by the slums of the 
 seaports ; or who go to the land to cheat and insult 
 the inhabitants. The Chinese have come in contact 
 with nations that do not regard right as might ; and 
 they find that modern weapons are necessary to 
 defend them against the treacherous attacks of Russian 
 liars, and the unjust impositions of arrogant Romanist 
 missionaries. 
 
 Confucius appealed to the intellect of mankind, and 
 inculcated duty and morality, or The Way to become 
 similar to the Perfect Man. The great Chinese sage 
 laid down the important dictum : " Sincerity is the end 
 and the beginning of all things ; without Sincerity there 
 would be nothing." Any missionary who would intro- 
 duce into China a religion which excuses duplicity, 
 or which teaches that faith need not be kept with 
 opponents, is more worthy of death than a murderer ; 
 and all good men ought to pray that China may be 
 saved from such abominable moral pollution. 
 
 What have the Japanese to learn from Christian 
 teachers regarding The Way ? Have they maintained 
 their empire and advanced in civilisation without any 
 vision of the Archetypal Man ? 
 
 Some European writers say that the principal deity 
 of Shintoism is the Sun-goddess ; but that any objects 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 47 1 
 
 or forces in Nature may be worshipped. Such writers 
 have no notion of the meaning of the worship. 
 
 Dr. Murray, in his work on Japan, remarks that the 
 Shinto religion is the primitive religion of Japan ; and 
 that it differs from all known systems of religion in 
 having no body of dogma by which its adherents are 
 held together, and not even any moral code. He 
 also says that " The religious notions of the prehistoric 
 Japanese were founded on the myths relating to their 
 ancestors." 
 
 Myths and legends are important ; especially when, 
 as in every ancient nation, they teach the celestial 
 origin of the race, and refer to a time when the common 
 ancestor was " Son of God." What is this but the 
 primitive vision of the Archetypal Man ? 
 
 Dr. Murray also says : " Notwithstanding the vast 
 number of deities who come into existence according 
 to tradition, most of them vanish as soon as they are 
 named and are no more heard of." These supposed 
 deities had no temples erected to their memory, and 
 no service prescribed or maintained in their honour. 
 
 What is the explanation of this strange treatment 
 of deities ? Words were scarce and valuable ; and 
 every good man was given a title according to the 
 manner in which he most resembled the Ideal Man. 
 It was simply the primitive Egyptian custom of 
 describing the good man as an Osiris ; or the Hebrew 
 custom of regarding the true worshipper of the 
 Elohim, or Divine Mind, as an elohim. 
 
 The Shinto worship is essentially the worship of the 
 ancient Hebrew ; and the true worshipper can appre- 
 
472 The origin and nature of man. 
 
 ciate the saying, "Blessed are they who have not seen 
 and yet have believed " ; or the saying, " They endured 
 because seeing Him Who is invisible." 
 
 The conduct and discipline of life inculcated by 
 Shintoism are the expression of the prayer 
 
 " Heavenly Adam, Light Divine, 
 Change my nature into Thine." 
 
 Dr. Nitobe, in his work on " Bushido ; or, The Soul 
 of Japan," says that Shinto theology " believes in the 
 innate goodness and Godlike purity of the human soul, 
 adoring it as the adytum from which divine oracles are 
 proclaimed. Everybody has observed that the Shinto 
 shrines are conspicuously devoid of objects and instru- 
 ments of worship, and that a plain mirror hung in the 
 sanctuary forms the essential part of its furnishing. 
 The presence of this article is easy to explain ; it 
 typifies the human heart, which, when perfectly placid 
 and clear, reflects the very image of the Deity. When 
 you stand, therefore, in front of the shrine to worship, 
 you see your own image reflected on its shining sur- 
 face, and the act of worship is tantamount to the old 
 Delphic injunction, Know thyself." 
 
 According to primitive teaching, Man was made in 
 the Image of God; and therefore must contain the 
 Shekinah, or revelation of God. The Shinto (and the 
 Hebrew) worshipper examines his soul by introspection, 
 and compares it with the Ideal in him, to see if his 
 moral nature has dirt on it. A child in a passion 
 will struggle to avoid looking in a mirror. 
 
 This was the doctrine taught by Paul when he said, 
 
ARCHETYPAL MAN. 473 
 
 " Examine your own selves, whether ye be in the faith ; 
 prove your own selves. Or know ye not as to your own 
 selves, that Jesus Christ is in you ? unless indeed ye 
 be reprobate." It is absurd to ask a man to judge 
 himself if he has no standard with which to compare 
 himself. 
 
 Writers who cannot understand Shintoism say that 
 the spirit of an enshrined deity is supposed to be 
 concealed in a case only exposed to view once a year ; 
 and that worship consists in merely washing the face 
 in a font, striking a bell, throwing a few cash into a 
 money-box, and praying silently for a few seconds. 
 Yet it is remarked that long pilgrimages are made to 
 the summits of mountains to do this which seems to 
 the stupid observer amazing folly. 
 
 Lao Tze, and Confucius, and Gautama, had no 
 intention to alter the Old Faith, or to invent anything 
 new in religion. The Buddha always regarded him- 
 self as a true Hindu, recalling men to the pure Old 
 Faith, that priests had obscured and corrupted. He 
 only professed to be The Enlightened One not to be 
 The Light. 
 
 Buddhism was introduced into Japan from China, 
 and was welcomed as a valuable addition to knowledge 
 of religion. The relation of Buddhism to Shintoism 
 may be compared to the relation of the teaching of 
 Moses to the religion of Abraham. The Law was very 
 useful ; but Abraham was the " friend of God " without 
 the Law. In the course of time Buddhism became 
 corrupt, and employed priests and idols, until it became 
 the dominant religion, and Shintoism was only the 
 
474 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 religion of the pious thinkers. The history of Buddhism 
 in Japan maybe compared to the history of Catholicism 
 in England. Originally it was a pure spiritual religion, 
 and afterwards became materialistic and idolatrous; 
 but it never persecuted any man because of his piety. 
 
 What is the fruit of Japanese religion, according 
 to which it must be judged ? 
 
 Lafcadio Hearn observes of Japanese home life : " In 
 a well-conducted household, where every act is per- 
 formed according to the old forms of courtesy and 
 kindness where no harsh word is ever spoken, where 
 the young look up to the aged with affectionate respect, 
 where those whom years have incapacitated for more 
 active duty, take upon themselves the care of the 
 children, and render priceless service in teaching and 
 training, an ideal condition has been realised. The 
 daily life of such a home. in which the endeavour of 
 each is to make existence as pleasant as possible for 
 all, in which the bond of union is really love and 
 gratitude, represents religion in the best and purest 
 sense ; and the place is holy." 
 
 The same writer states : " I have lived in districts 
 where no case of theft had occurred for hundreds of 
 years." And again : " Family existence would seem 
 to be everywhere characterised by gentleness : there 
 is no visible quarrelling, no loud harshness, no tears 
 and reproaches. Cruelty, even to animals, appears to 
 be unknown. One sees farmers, coming to town, 
 trudging patiently beside their horses or oxen, aiding 
 their dumb companions to bear the burden, and using 
 no whips or goads." And again : " Everybody greets 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 475 
 
 everybody with happy looks and pleasant words ; 
 faces are always smiling; the commonest incidents 
 of everyday life are transfigured by a courtesy at 
 once so artless and so faultless that it appears 
 to spring directly from the heart, without any 
 teaching." 
 
 Are the Chinese and Japanese ignorant of The Way? 
 Have not Europe and America much to learn from 
 them in true religion ? Their teachers learned in the 
 same school as Abraham. 
 
 Bushido places rectitude above all learning or art. 
 Duty is what rectitude demands right reason. No 
 accomplishment is of value without rectitude ; as no 
 building can have enduring stability if out of the 
 perpendicular. Men are to strike for right ; die for 
 right. Great valour is to do what is right. 
 
 A man has lost his birthright when he is unable to 
 enjoy communion with God on the mountain top or 
 in the solitude of the desert. Every child ought to be 
 taught to worship the Creator and the Archetypal Man 
 with closed eyes ; 'and to reverence the Excellent Way. 
 All idols are an abomination to Jehovah because they 
 obstruct the vision of the Ideal, and so prevent man from 
 recognising his own nature, and the degradation that 
 bars him from the Kingdom of Heaven. The Mirror of 
 the Shinto Temple is not an idol, but a symbol to teach 
 the sinner that as he recognises defilement of his 
 countenance by comparing the vision of it with an Ideal 
 of purity in his mind, so he must observe defilement of 
 his soul by comparison with the Ideal Man. Paul 
 declared that " We all with unveiled face beholding 
 
476 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into 
 the same Image from glory to glory." 
 
 The Apostle James appreciated the teaching of the 
 Mirror. He says, " If any be a hearer of the Word, 
 and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his 
 natural face in a glass : for he beholdeth himself, and 
 goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of 
 man he was." 
 
 The great essential vision is that of the Son of God ; 
 and all attempts to teach those who have seen Him are 
 like lectures on light to those who see the sun. The 
 vision is the common inheritance of the seekers of 
 righteousness of every age and race. Jesus said to the 
 Jews, " I say unto you that many shall come from the 
 East and from the West, and shall sit down with 
 Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of 
 Heaven." No scholarship or human skill can confer 
 the vision which makes clear the fact that " In the 
 beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 
 and the Word was God." The true seer, like Abraham, 
 has the direct personal self-authentication of the Christ ; 
 and the vision remains equally satisfying for ever after- 
 wards from whatever point of view the seer may try to 
 look. 
 
 The Hebrews saw clearly because they longed for 
 the establishment of the Kingdom of Righteousness, 
 which can only be accomplished by the Holy One ; 
 and He must satisfy every noble aspiration, and be 
 the Moral Ideal of everyone seeking to become perfect 
 in the sight of God. No man can see all the perfections 
 of the Ideal Man, since each sees according to his limited 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE J OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 477 
 
 powers and experience ; but each seer may recognise 
 the truth of the aspect described by another. A circle 
 may be so wide that no one can see it whole, and many 
 may only be able to discern a very small portion ; yet 
 each may be certain that what he does see, and what 
 others describe, are parts of the Grand Circle. 
 
 The true nature of man cannot be discovered by 
 the study of morbid specimens. The Mirror must be 
 used in a docile spirit by those conscious of defilement, 
 and willing to accept reproof and instruction from the 
 more experienced. Then the Ideal may be seen beyond 
 the disfigurements. Gentiles who have not the Law 
 handed down by ancestral wisdom may do by Nature 
 the things of the Law, because conscience within them 
 bears witness to the Ideal. There is the certainty that 
 man has the same nature as his Father ; or that Adam 
 was made in the Image of God by means of the Word. 
 The Word, or Archetypal Man, or Only Begotten Son, 
 was known by the ancient Hebrews to be the brightness 
 of the glory of the Creator, and the express Image of 
 His Person ; and they looked for the time when the 
 First Begotten or Eternal Son would appear upon earth, 
 and when all the angels of God would worship the 
 Incarnate Deity. 
 
 Each seer must use words to try to describe his 
 vision of the Archetypal Man, and the descriptions 
 must vary according to the point of view, and the 
 command of language, and the comprehensiveness of 
 the concept, so that one cannot fully understand 
 another, though knowing that what he says is true. 
 
 It seems confusing to speak of the One by different 
 
478 THE ORIGIN AND NATURE OF MAN. 
 
 Names, such as Son of God, Only Begotten Son, 
 Word of God, Eternal One, Archetypal Man, Primal 
 Male, Formal Cause, King of Righteousness, Prince of 
 Peace, the Christ, the Redeemer, and a multitude 
 of other Names descriptive of some attribute or 
 characteristic. Words cannot be understood except 
 by those who have been taught, and their meaning 
 may change; whereas actions and conduct appeal to 
 men of every race and time without depending upon 
 erudition. Multitudes of Christian martyrs knew little 
 of the Bible, and had no opportunity of seeing or 
 hearing parts of it that are discussed by "higher" critics 
 and foolish scholars as if the truth of religion depends 
 on their authenticity; yet the martyrs could say with 
 the full assurance of understanding 
 
 " Thou, O Christ, art all I want, 
 More than all in Thee I find." 
 
 Thousands of years ago the peasants were able to 
 understand teaching that seems incomprehensible to 
 modern scholars, who dream that they are improving 
 in ability by some mechanical process of evolution. 
 Those who were addressed by Paul knew quite well 
 what he meant when he spoke of " the Image of the 
 invisible God, the First-Born of all creation," and said, 
 "all things have been created through Him, and unto 
 Him ; and He is before all things, and in Him all 
 things consist." Even the shepherds, who seemed to 
 have as little in common with the Jews as the Chinese, 
 were longing and watching for the coming of the 
 Perfect One, as the best and noblest souls of every 
 
THE FORMAL CAUSE ; OR, ARCHETYPAL MAN. 479 
 
 age have longed and watched ; for they knew that the 
 Archetypal Man must some day become incarnate in 
 order to reveal clearly the moral nature of God, and 
 to triumph over sin and death by virtue of His Godhead. 
 Has there been an Incarnation of the Archetypal 
 Man, revealing clearly the moral nature of God and 
 Man, and of Whom it can be truly said 
 
 " Kings shall fall down before Him, 
 And gold and incense bring ; 
 All nations shall adore Him, 
 His praise all people sing " ? 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abraham, influence, 162, 403 
 Adam, 330, 364, 369, 370 
 Archetypes essential, 186 
 Aristotle at school, 468 
 Aryans, 430 
 Assyria influential, 443 
 Atomic theory, 58 
 
 Babel, 408 
 Babylonia, 403 
 Belshazzar, 488 
 Bible, 374 
 
 Book of the Dead, 384 
 Brahman, 375, 432 
 Buddha, 437, 460 
 Budge, 385, 390 
 Buffon, 84 
 Bushmen, 141 
 
 Cell, 26 
 
 Chinese religion, 468 
 
 Christianity and Darwinism, 
 
 184 
 Coleridge, 225 
 Confucius, 437, 462 
 Creation, 76, 135, 292 
 Cuvier, 89 
 Cyrus, 448, 450 
 
 O.M. 
 
 Daniel, 447 
 Darius, 452 
 Darwin, Erasmus, 87 
 Darwin, Charles, 93, 100, 108. 
 
 136, 138, 149, 152 
 Deluge, The, 407 
 Descent of Man, 101 
 Dolmens, 120 
 
 Eden, 147 
 
 Egypt, 167, 401, 443 
 
 Elohim, The, 310, 377 
 
 Epictetus, 175 
 
 Esther, 458 
 
 Eve, 319, 330 
 
 Evolution, 35, 77, 98, 150, 176 
 
 Exodus, 415 
 
 Fall, The, 332 
 Faith, The Old, 394 
 Faust, 12, 72, 260 
 Fittest to survive, 96 
 Fuegians, 137, 152 
 
 Genesis, 288, 307, 326 
 Genius, 211, 234, 238, 252 
 Geology, 112 
 
 I I 
 
482 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Haeckel, 71, 146, 163 
 
 Hart, Sir Robert, on Chinese, 
 
 469 
 Harvey, 83 
 Hearn, Lafcadio, 474 
 Hebrews, 45, 184 
 Heredity, 144, 234, 254 
 Hilprecht, 125 
 Hinduism, 374, 4 2 9> 435 
 Hiram, 440 
 Hugo, 231 
 Huxley, 67, 97, 109, 131, 197, 
 
 286 
 
 Kant, 87 
 Kent's Hole, 114 
 Kipling, 226, 277 
 Kitchen Middens, 119 
 
 Lake dwellings, 118 
 Lamarck, 88 
 Language, 31, 126 
 Laplace, 51, 87 
 Liars, 394 
 Life, 5, 28, 30 
 Light, 297 
 Linnaeus, 84 
 Livingstone, 139 
 Lombroso, 240 
 Lyell, 90 
 
 Mahatma in America, 173 
 
 Mammoth, 117 
 
 Man, 10, 14, 15, 21, 303, 325 
 
 Manna, 418 
 
 Marcus Aurelius, 176 
 
 Materialist, loneliness, 3 
 
 Max Mueller, 375 
 
 Micah, 131 
 
 Mind, 319 
 
 Monier Williams, 430 
 Moral Standard, 140, 380 
 Moses, 412 
 
 Natural selection, 94, 97, 103* 
 
 157 
 Nebuchadnezzar, 444 
 Nebular Theory, 52 
 Nehemiah, 459 
 Newton, 83 
 
 Nippur excavations, 125 
 Nitobe on Shinto, 472 
 
 Parsis, 463 
 Persians, 454, 459 
 Phrenology, 144 
 Pineal gland, 107 
 Poets, 224 
 
 Population, ancient, 358 
 Poverty, 152 
 Prophet, 217 
 Protoplasm,' 7 
 Psychology, 369 
 Pyramid, 406 
 Pythagoras, 437 
 
 Omar Khayyam, 176 
 Osiris, 388 
 
 Quain's Anatomy 1 1 
 
 Religion, 161,387,424 
 
 Satan, 349 
 Science, 38,65 
 Schleiden, 91 
 Schreiner, Olive, 340 
 Schwann, 91 
 Seers, 203 
 
INDEX. 
 
 483 
 
 Sexes, 347 
 
 Sexual selection, 106 
 
 Sheba, Queen of, 438 
 
 Shekinah, 417 
 
 Shinto, 470 
 
 Sin, 147 
 
 Society development, 169 
 
 Solomon, 171, 439 
 
 Solon, 468 
 
 Species, 81, 94, 301 
 
 Spencer, 63, 68, jt> 
 
 Steindorff, 383 
 
 Struggle for existence, 159 
 
 Superstition, 175 
 
 Survival of fittest, 1 
 Symbolism, 242 
 
 Tennyson, 249 
 Thibet, 465 
 
 Veda, 430 
 Vital force, 9, 28 
 
 Woman 342 
 Words, 398 
 
 Xerxes, 455 
 zoroastrians, 460 
 
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