Regarding the opinions of the ancients on the subject of the
eternity of matter, Higgins, in his learned work on Celtic
Druids, says:
"The eternity of matter is a well known tenet of the
Pythagoreans, and whether right or wrong there can be no doubt
that it was the doctrine of the oriental school, whence
Pythagoras drew his learning. It was a principle taken or
mistaken from, or found amongst, the debris of that mighty mass
of learning and science of a former period, of which, on looking
back as far as human ken can reach, the most learned men have
thought that they could see a faint glimmering. Indeed, I think I
may say something more than a faint glimmering. For all the
really valuable moral and philosophical doctrines we possess,
Dutens has shown to have existed there."
From what is known relative to the speculations of an ancient
race, the fact is observed that creation was but a re-formation
of matter. Wisdom, or Minerva, formed the earth and the planets;
she did not create the heavens and the earth, as did the later
Jewish God.
Of the seven principles of the universe, matter was the first,
and of the seven principles of man, the physical body was the
earliest. Through evolutionary processes, or through cyclic
periods involving millions of years, mind was developed, and in
course of time spirit was finally manifested.
Mai, the Mother of Gotama Buddha, was simply matter, or
illusion, from which its higher manifestation, mind or spirit,
was emerging. She was also the mother of Mercury. A clearer
knowledge of the philosophical doctrines which were elaborated at
a time when Nature-worship was beginning to decay, reveals the
fact that the god-idea comprehended a profound knowledge of
Nature and her laws; that while this people did not pretend to
account for the existence of matter, they recognized a force
operating through it whose laws were unchanged and
unchanging.
With these facts relative to the intelligence of an older race
before us, the question naturally arises: What was the degree of
civilization attained at a time when the Deity worshipped was an
abstract principle involving the actual creative processes
throughout Nature? and, notwithstanding our prejudices, we are
constrained to acknowledge that these earlier conceptions are
scarcely compatible with the barbarism which we have been taught
to regard as the condition of all the peoples which existed prior
to the first Greek Olympiad. On the contrary, the origin of the
philosophical opinions entertained by the most ancient oriental
philosophers, and which must have arisen out of a profound
knowledge or appreciation of Nature and her operations, point to
a race far superior to any of those peoples which appear in early
historic times. Regarding these opinions, Godfrey Higgins
remarks:
"From their philosophical truth and universal
reception I am strongly inclined to refer them to the authors of
the Neros, or to that enlightened race, supposed by Bailly to
have formerly existed, and to have been saved from a great
catastrophe on the Himalaya Mountains. This is confirmed by an
observation which the reader will make in the sequel, that these
doctrines have been, like all the other doctrines of antiquity,
gradually corrupted--incarnated, if I may be permitted to compose
a word for the occasion."
Of this cycle, Bailly says: "No person could have invented the
Neros who had not arrived at much greater perfection in astronomy
than we know was the state of the most ancient Assyrians,
Egyptians, and Greeks."
Toward the close of the eighteenth century the celebrated
astronomer, Bailly, published a work entitled The History of
Ancient Astronomy, in which he endeavored to prove that a nation
possessed of profound wisdom and great genius, and of an
antiquity far superior to the Hindoos or Egyptians, "inhabited
the country to the north of India, or about fifty degrees north
latitude." This writer has shown that "the most celebrated
astronomical observations and inventions, from their peculiar
character, could have taken place only in these latitudes, and
that arts and improvements gradually travelled thence to the
equator."
A colony of Brahmins settled near the Imans, and in Northern
Thibet, where in ancient times they established celebrated
colleges, particularly at Nagraent and Cashmere. In these
institutions the treasures of Sanskrit literature were supposed
to be deposited. The Rev. Mr. Maurice was informed that an
immemorial tradition prevailed at Benares that all the learning
of India came from a country situated in forty degrees of
northern latitude. Other writers are of the opinion that
civilization proceeded from Arabia; that the old Cushite race
carried commerce, letters, and laws to all the nations of the
East. Which of these theories is true, if either, may not with
certainty be proved at present; yet that in the far distant past
a race of people existed whose achievements exceeded those of any
of the historic nations may not be doubted.
That the length of the year was calculated with greater
exactness by an ancient and forgotten people than it was by early
historic nations is proved by the cycle of the Neros. This cycle,
which was formed of 7.421 lunar revolutions of 29 days, 12 hours,
44 minutes, and 3 seconds, or 219,146 days and a half, was equal
to 600 solar years of 365 days, 5 hours, 51 minutes, and 36
seconds, which time varies less than three minutes from the
present observations of the year's length. The length of the year
as calculated by the Egyptians and other early historic nations
was 360 days, which fact would seem to indicate that a science of
astronomy had been developed in an earlier age which by the most
ancient peoples of whom we have any historic records has been
lost or forgotten. It has been said that if this cycle of the
Neros "were correct to the second, if on the first of January at
noon a new moon took place, it would take place again in exactly
600 years at the same moment of the day, and under all the same
circumstances."[61]
[61] Godfrey Higgins, Celtic Druids, ch. ii., sec. 14.
The Varaha Calpa has the famous cycle of 4,320,000,000 years
for its duration. This system makes the Cali Yug begin 3098 years
B.C. A dodecan consisted of 5 days, and 72 dodecans formed a
natural year of 360 days. According to the earlier calculations,
360 solar diurnal revolutions constituted a natural year. The
doctrine of the ancients concerning these cycles is thus set
forth by Godfrey Higgins:
"The sun, or rather that higher principle of which
the sun was the emblem or the shekinah, was considered to be
incarnated every six hundred years. Whilst the sun was in Taurus,
the different incarnations, under whatever names they might go,
were all considered but as incarnations of Buddha or Taurus. When
he got into Aries, they were in like manner considered but as
incarnations of Cristna or Aries, and even Buddha and Cristna
were originally considered the same, and had a thousand names in
common, constantly repeated in their litanies--a striking proof
of identity of origin.
Of these Zodiacal divisions the Hindoos formed another period,
which consisted of ten ages or Calpas or Yugs, which they
considered the duration of the world, at the end of which a
general renovation of all things would take place. They also
reckoned ten Neroses to form a period, each of them keeping a
certain relative location to the other, and together to form a
cycle. To effect this they doubled the precessional period for
one sign-- viz: 2160 years--thus making 4320, which was a tenth
of 43,200, a year of the sun, analogous to the 360 natural days,
and produced in the same manner, by multiplying the day of 600 by
the dodecans 72 = 43,200. They then formed another great year of
432,000 by again multiplying it by 10, which they called a Cali
Yug, which was measurable both by the number 2160, the years the
equinox preceded in a sign, and by the number 600. They then had
the following scheme:
A Cali Yug, or 600 (or a Neros) 432,000
A Dwapar, or Duo-par Age. . . .864,000
A Treta, or tree-par Age. . . 1,296,000
A Satya, or Satis Age . . . .1,728,000
---------
4,320,000
altogether 10 Ages, making a Maha Yug or Great Age. These were
all equimultiples of the Cycle of the Neros 600, and of 2160, the
twelfth part of the equinoctial precessional Cycle, and in all
formed ten ages of 432,000 years each."[62]
[62] Anacalypsis, vol. i., p. 232.
The two great religious festivals of the ancients occurred the
one in the spring, at Easter, when all Nature was renewed, the
other in the autumn, after the earth had yielded her bounties and
the fruits were garnered in. It was at these gatherings that the
Great Mother Earth received the devout adoration of all her
children.
It is supposed that the Neros, or cycle of 600, is closely
connected with this worship, and that it was invented to regulate
the season for these festivals. In process of time it was
discovered that this cycle no longer answered, that the festival
which had originally fallen on the first of May now occurred on
the first of April. This, we are told,
"led ultimately to the discovery that the equinox
preceded about 2160 years in each sign or 25,920 years in the 12
signs, and this induced them to try if they could not form a
cycle of the two. On examination, they found that the 600 would
not commensurate the 2160 years in a sign, or any number of sums
of 2160 less than ten, but that it would with ten, or that in ten
times 2160, or in 21,600 years, the two cycles would agree; yet
this artificial cycle would not be enough to include the cycle of
25,920. They, therefore, took two of the periods of 21,600, or
43,200; and, multiplying both by ten--viz: 600 X 10 = 6000, and
43,200 X 10 = 432,000--they formed a period with which the
600-year period and the 6000-year period would terminate and form
a cycle. Every 432,000 years the three periods would commence
anew; thus the three formed a year or cycle, 72 times 6000 making
432,000, and 720 times 600 making 432,000."[63]
[63] Higgins, Anacalypsis, p. 235.
To form a great year, which would include all the cyclical
motions of the sun and moon, and perhaps of the planets, they
multiplied 432,000 by ten; thus they had ten periods answering to
ten signs. Concerning these cycles Godfrey Higgins observes:
"Persons of narrow minds will be astonished at such
monstrous cycles; but it is very certain that no period could
properly be called the great year unless it embraced in its cycle
every periodical movement or apparent aberration. But their
vulgar wonder will perhaps cease when they are told that La Place
has proved that, if the periodical aberrations of the moon be
correctly calculated, the great year must be extended to a
greater length even than 4,320,000 years of the Maha Yug of the
Hindoos, and certainly no period can be called a year of our
planetary system which does not take in all the periodical
motions of the planetary bodies."
It is thought that as soon as these ancient astronomers
perceived that the equinoxes preceded, they would at once attempt
to determine the rate of precession in a given time; the
precession, however, in one year was so small that they were
obliged to extend their observations over immense periods. Jones
informs us that the Hindoos first supposed that the precession
took place at the rate of 60 years in a degree, or 1800 in a
Zodiacal sign, and of 21,600 in a revolution of the entire
circle. They afterwards came to think that the precession was at
the rate of 60 years and a fraction of a year, and thus that the
precession for a sign was in 1824 years, and for the circle in
21,888 years. Subsequently they discovered, or thought they had
discovered, the Soli-Lunar period of 608 years, hence they
attempted to make the two go together. Both, however, proved to
be erroneous.
In referring to the fact that among the ancient Romans existed
the story of the twelve vultures and the twelve ages of 120 years
each, Higgins remarks:
"This arose from the following cause: They came from
the East before the supposition that the precession took place a
degree in about 60 years, and 1824 years in a sign had been
discovered to be erroneous; and as they supposed the Neros made a
correct cycle in 608 years, and believed the precessional cycle
to be completed in 21,888, they of course made their ages into
twelve. As both numbers were erroneous, they would not long
answer their intended purpose, and their meaning was soon lost,
though the sacred periods of twelve ages and of 608
remained."
According to Hipparchus and Ptolemy, the equinoxes preceded at
the rate of a degree in 100 years, or 36,000 hundred years in 360
degrees. This constituted a great year, at the end of which the
regeneration of all things takes place. This is thought to be a
remnant of the most ancient Hindoo speculations, and not the
result of observation among the Greeks. Some time after the
arrival of the sun in Aries,
"at the vernal equinox, the Indians probably
discovered their mistake, in giving about 60 years to a degree;
that they ought to give 50" to a year, about 72 years to a
degree, and about 2160 years to a sign; and that the Luni-Solar
cycle, called the Neros, did not require 608 years, but 600 years
only, to complete its period. Hence arose the more perfect
Neros."
It is thought by various writers that the knowledge of the
ancient Hindoos regarding the movements of the sun and moon in
their cycles of nineteen and six hundred years--the Metonic
cycle, and the Neros--proves that long before the birth of
Hipparchus the length of the year was known with a degree of
exactitude which that astronomer had not the means of
determining. It is positively asserted by astronomers that at
least twelve hundred years were required, "during which time the
observations must have been taken with the greatest care and
regularly recorded," to arrive at the knowledge necessary for the
invention of the Neros, and that such observations would have
been impossible without the aid of the telescope.
On the subject of the great learning of an ancient race, Sir
W. Drummond says:
"The fact, however, is certain, that at some remote
period there were mathematicians and astronomers who knew that
the sun is in the centre of the planetary system, and that the
earth, itself a planet, revolves round the central fire;--who
calculated, or like ourselves attempted to calculate, the return
of comets, and who knew that these bodies move in elliptic
orbits, immensely elongated, having the sun in one of their
foci;--who indicated the number of the solar years contained in
the great cycle, by multiplying a period (variously called in the
Zend, the Sanscrit, and the Chinese ven, van, and phen) of 180
years by another period of 144 years;--who reckoned the sun's
distance from the earth at 800,000,000 of Olympic stadia; and who
must, therefore, have taken the parallax of that luminary by a
method, not only much more perfect than that said to be invented
by Hipparchus, but little inferior in exactness to that now in
use among the moderns;--who could scarcely have made a mere guess
when they fixed the moon's distance from its primary planet at
fifty-nine semi-diameters of the earth;--who had measured the
circumference of our globe with so much exactness that their
calculation only differed by a few feet from that made by our
modern geometricians; --who held that the moon and the other
planets were worlds like our own, and that the moon was
diversified by mountains and valleys and seas;--who asserted that
there was yet a planet which revolved round the sun, beyond the
orbit of Saturn;--who reckoned the planets to be sixteen in
number; --and who reckoned the length of the tropical year within
three minutes of the true time; nor, indeed, were they wrong at
all, if a tradition mentioned by Plutarch be
correct."[64]
[64] Drummond, On the Zodiacs, p. 36.
Bailly, Sir W. Jones, Higgins, and Ledwich, as well as many
modern writers, agree in the conclusion that the Indians, the
Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Chinese were simply the
depositaries, not the inventors, of science. The spirit of
inquiry which in later times is directing attention to the almost
buried past is revealing the fact that not merely the germs
whence our present civilization has been developed descended to
us from the dim ages of antiquity, but that a great number of the
actual benefits which go to make up our present state of material
progress have come to us from prehistoric times. The art of
writing, of navigation (including the use of the compass), the
working of metals, astronomy, the telescope, gunpowder,
mathematics, democracy, building, weaving, dyeing, and many of
the appliances of civilized life, have been appropriated by later
ages with no acknowledgment of the source whence they were
derived. When Pythagoras exhibited to the Greeks some beautiful
specimens of ancient architecture which he had brought from Egypt
and Babylon, they simply claimed them as their own, giving no
credit to the people who originated them; and subsequent ages,
copying their example, have refused to acknowledge that anything
of value had been achieved prior to the first Greek Olympiad.
When Philip of Macedon opened the gold mines of Thrace, a
country in which it will be remembered the worship of the Great
Mother Cybele was indigenous, he found that they had been
previously worked "at great expense and with great ingenuity by a
people well versed in mechanics, of whom no monuments whatever
are extant."
The decorations on the breasts of some of the oldest mummies
show that the early Egyptians understood the art of making glass.
It is now known that the lens as a magnifying instrument was in
use among them. Attention has been drawn to the fact that the
astronomical observations of the ancients would have been
impossible without the aid of the telescope. Diodorus Siculus
says there was an island west of the Celtae in which the Druids
brought the sun and moon near them. An instrument has recently
been found in the sands of the Nile, the construction of which
shows plainly that 6000 years ago the Egyptians were acquainted
with our modern ideas of the science of astronomy.
William Huntington, who has travelled widely in India, Borneo,
the Malay Peninsula, and Egypt, says:
"I think, on the whole, the most interesting
experience I ever had was in an ancient city on the Nile in
Egypt. . . . When I was there a year ago, and men were digging
among the ruined temples, some curious things were brought to
light, and these I regard as the strangest things seen in all my
wanderings. In an old tomb was found a curious iron and glass
object, which on investigation proved to be a photographic
camera. It was not such a camera as is used now, or has been
since our photography was invented, but something analogous to
it, showing that the art which we thought we had discovered was
really known 6000 years ago."
The same writer states that a plow constructed on the modern
plan was also found. "It was not of steel but of iron, and it had
the same shape, the same form of point and bend of mold board as
we have now."
It is reported that the dark continent possesses means of
communication entirely unknown to Europe. Upon this subject a
correspondent to the New York Tribune writes:
"When Khartoum fell in 1885 I was in Egypt, and I
well remember that the Arabs settled in the neighborhood of the
pyramids knew all about it, as well as about Gen. Gordon's death,
days and days before the news reached Cairo by telegraph from the
Soudanese frontier. Yet Khartoum is thousands of miles distant
from Cairo and the telegraph wires from the frontier were
monopolized by the government."
The same correspondent observes that these Arabs told him,
months previously, of the defeat of the Egyptian army under Baker
Pasha at Tokar--that they not only gave him the news, but several
particulars concerning the matter, two full days before
intelligence was received from the Red Sea coast. In answer to
the suggestion that such information might have been conveyed by
means of signal fires, this writer says that such fires would
have attracted the attention of the English and native scouts,
and that the whole country is unpropitious to such methods;
besides, no system of signal fires, no matter how elaborate,
could have conveyed the news so quickly and in such detail. The
whole matter is summed up as follows:
"The Arabs, therefore, have, manifestly, some other
means of rapid communication at their command. One is inclined to
the presumption that they, like the learned Pundits of Northern
India, have a knowledge of the forces of Nature that are yet
hidden from our most eminent scientists."
Can it be that the Arabs are acquainted with the very recently
discovered scientific principle, that it is possible to transmit
telegraphic communications without wires, and simply by means of
magnetic currents in earth and water?
Nor is this remarkable skill confined to the "barbarians of
the Old World." A correspondent from the far West to the New York
Press wrote that long before the news of the Custer massacre
reached Fort Abraham Lincoln the Sioux had communicated it to
their brethren. The scouts in Crook's column to the south knew of
it almost immediately, as did those with Gibbon farther
northwest. The same writer says that several years ago a naval
lieutenant ran short of provisions. He pushed on to a settlement
as rapidly as possible and upon arriving there found that the
inhabitants had provided for his coming and had a bounteous store
awaiting him. The people in the village were of a different tribe
from those whose domain he had passed, and so far as could be
learned were not in communication with them.
The earliest accounts which we have of Egypt and Chaldea
reveal the fact that at a very remote period they were old and
powerful civilizations, that they had a settled government, a
pure and philosophical religion, and a profound knowledge of
science and art; yet, notwithstanding the great antiquity of
these civilizations, that of the people which created them must
have been infinitely more remote.
The earliest historic nations recognized the greatness of
these ancient people and the extent of their dominion. In the
oldest geographical writings of the Sanskrit people, the ancient
Ethiopia, or land of Cush of Greek and Hebrew antiquity, is
clearly described. Stephanus of Byzantium, who is said to
represent the opinions of the most ancient Greeks, says:
"Ethiopia was the first established country on the earth, and the
Ethiopians were the first who introduced the worship of the Gods
and who established laws."[65]
[65] Quoted by John D. Baldwin, Prehistoric Nations, p. 62.
Heeren in his researches says:
"From the remotest times to the present, the
Ethiopians have been one of the most celebrated, and yet the most
mysterious of nations. In the earliest traditions of nearly all
the more civilized nations of antiquity, the name of this distant
people is found. The annals of the Egyptian priests are full of
them, and the nations of inner Asia, on the Euphrates and Tigris,
have interwoven the fictions of the Ethiopians with their
traditions of the wars and conquests of their heroes; and, at a
period equally remote, they glimmer in Greek mythology. When the
Greeks scarcely knew Italy and Sicily by name, the Ethiopians
were celebrated in the verses of their poets, and when the faint
gleam of tradition and fable gives way to the clear light of
history, the lustre of the Ethiopians is not
diminished."
Homer says of them that they were a "divided people dwelling
at the ends of the earth toward the setting and the rising Sun."
Although it is possible at the present time to discover very many
of the facts bearing upon the civilization of this ancient
people, it is impossible in the present condition of human
knowledge to discover when civilized life began on the earth.
Whether the ancient Arabians or Ethiopians who belonged to the
old Cushite race, and who are believed by many to be the most
ancient people of whom we have any trace, were the first
colonizers, or whether they were preceded by a still older
civilization, history and tradition are alike silent; yet the
fact seems to be tolerably well authenticated that this
enlightened race, now nearly extinct, carried civilization to
Chaldea more than seven thousand years B.C., that it colonized
Egypt, engrafted its own institutions in India, colonized
Phoenicia, and by its maritime and commercial enterprise,
introduced civilized conditions into every quarter of the globe.
Even in Peru, in Mexico, in Central America, and in the United
States are evidences of the old Cushite religion and
enterprise.
Baldwin, commenting on the greatness of this remarkable
people, says that early in the period of its colonizing
enterprise, commercial greatness, and extensive empire, it
established colonies in the valleys of the Nile and the
Euphrates, which in later ages became Barbary, Egypt, and
Chaldea. The ancient Cushite nation occupied Arabia and other
extensive regions of Africa, India, and Western Asia to the
Mediterranean. While remarking upon the vastness and antiquity of
this old Cushite race, Rawlinson says that they founded most of
the towns of Western Asia. The vast commercial system which
formed a connecting link between the various countries of the
globe, was created by this people, the great manufacturing skill
and unrivalled maritime activity of the Phoenicians which
extended down to the time of the Hellenes and the Romans having
been a result of the irgenius. It was doubtless during the
supremacy of the ancient Cushite race that a knowledge of
astronomy was developed and that the arts of life were carried to
a high degree of perfection. However, through the peculiar
influences which were brought to bear upon human experience, this
knowledge, which was bequeathed to their descendants or to the
nations which they had created, was subsequently lost or
practically obscured, only fragments of it having been preserved
from the general ruin.
Within these fragments have been preserved in India certain
evidences of a profound knowledge of Nature, or of the at present
unknown forces in the universe, a demonstration of which, in our
own time, would probably be looked upon as a miraculous
interposition of supernatural agencies.
Regarding the refinements and luxuries of this ancient people,
Diodorus Siculus declares that they flowed in streams of gold and
silver, that "the porticoes of their temples were overlaid with
gold, and that the adornments of their buildings were in some
parts of silver and gold, and in others of ivory and precious
stones, and other things of great value."
From various observations, it is plain that the Etrurians
represented a stage of civilization far in advance of the
Pelasgians who founded Rome --a race which, although superior in
numbers, arms, and influence, were, when compared with this more
ancient people, little better than barbarians.[66]
[66] It is thought that as early as the nineteenth century B.C.
the Pelasgians or Pelargians went to Aenonia, or Ionia. It was a
detachment of this people which, according to Herodotus, captured
a number of Athenian women on the coast of Africa, lived with
them as wives, and raised families by them, but, "because they
differed in manners from themselves," they murdered them, which
act was attended by a "dreadful pestilence." It is the opinion
of certain writers that these women were of a different religious
faith from their captors, and that so intense and bitter was the
feeling upon the comparative importance of the sex functions in
pro-creation, that their husbands, unable to change their views,
put an end to their existence.
Nothing, perhaps, proclaims the degree of civilization
attained by the ancient Etrurians more plainly than the exquisite
perfection which is observed in the specimens of art found in
their tumuli. Within the tombs of Etruscans buried long prior to
the foundation of Rome, or the birth of the fine arts in Greece,
have been found unmistakable evidence of the advanced condition
of this people. The exquisite coloring and grouping of the
figures on their elegant vases, one of which, on exhibition in
the British Museum, portrays the birth of Minerva, or Wisdom,
show the delicacy of their taste, the purity of their
conceptions, and their true artistic skill.
Among their mechanical arts, a few specimens of which have
been preserved, is the potter's wheel, an invention which, so far
as its utility is concerned, is declared to be absolutely
perfect--the most complete of all the instruments of the world.
"It never has been improved and admits of no improvement." In
fact all that may be gathered concerning the ancient Etrurians, a
people who by the most able writers upon this subject is believed
to have been one of the first to leave the Asiatic hive, is in
perfect accord with the facts already set forth regarding that
mighty nation, perhaps of upper Asia, who carried the study of
astronomy to a degree of perfection never again reached until
after the discovery of the Copernican system, who invented the
Neros and the Metonic Cycle, who colonized Egypt and Chaldea, and
who carried civilization to the remotest ends of the earth.
The philosophy of the Etrurians corresponds with that of the
most ancient Hindoo system, and displays a degree of wisdom
unparalleled by any of the peoples belonging to the early
historic ages. According to their cosmogony, the evolutionary or
creative processes involved twelve vast periods of time. At the
end of the first period appeared the planets and the earth, in
the second the firmament was made, in the third the waters were
brought forth, in the fourth the sun, moon, and stars were placed
in the heavens, in the fifth living creatures appeared on the
earth, and in the sixth man was produced. These six periods
comprehended one-half the duration of the cycle. After six more
periods had elapsed, or after the lapse of the entire cycle of
twelve periods, all creation was dissolved or drawn to the source
of all life. Subsequently a new creation was brought forth under
which the same order of events will take place. The involution of
life, or its return to the great source whence it sprang, did
not, however, involve the destruction of matter. The seeds of
returning life were preserved in an ark or boat--the female
principle, within which all things are contained. This indrawing
of life constituted "the night of Brahme." It was represented by
Vishnu sleeping on the bottom of the sea.
From the facts adduced in relation to the Etrurians we are not
surprised to find that their religion was that of the ancient
Nature worshippers, and that a mother with her child stood for
their god-idea. In referring to the religion of this people, and
to the great antiquity of the worship of the Virgin and Child,
Higgins remarks: "Amongst the Gauls, more than a hundred years
before the Christian era, in the district of Chartres, a festival
was celebrated in honor of the Virgin," and in the year 1747, a
mithraic monument was found "on which is exhibited a female
nursing an infant--the Goddess of the year nursing the God day."
To which he adds: "The Protestant ought to recollect that his
mode of keeping Christmas Day is only a small part of the old
festival as it yet exists amongst the followers of the Romish
Church. Theirs is the remnant of the old Etruscan worship of the
virgin and child." As a proof of the above, Higgins cites
Gorius's Tuscan Antiquities, where may be seen the figure of an
old Goddess with her child in her arms, the inscription being in
Etruscan characters. "No doubt the Romish Church would have
claimed her for a Madonna, but most unluckily she has her name,
Nurtia, in Etruscan letters, on her arm, after the Etruscan
practice."
From the monuments of Etruria the fact is observed that
descent and the rights of succession were traced in the female
line, a condition of society which indicates the high position
which must have been occupied by the women of that country.
In Oman is said to exist a fragment of the government of the
old Ethiopian or Cushite race. If this is true, then we may be
able to perceive at the present time something of the character
of the political institutions of this ancient nation. As no
people remains stationary, and as degeneracy has been the rule
with surrounding countries, we may not expect to find among the
people of Oman a true representation of ancient conditions, yet,
as has been observed, we may still be able to note some of the
facts relative to the organization of society and their
governmental institutions.
In a description furnished by Palgrave, Oman is termed a
kingdom, yet it is plain from the observations of this writer
that the existing form of government is that of a confederacy of
nations under a democratical system, identical with that
developed during the later status of barbarism. This writer
himself admits that Oman is less a kingdom than an aggregation of
municipalities, and that each of these municipalities or towns
has a separate existence and is controlled by its own local
chief; but that all are joined together in one confederacy, and
subjected to the leadership of a grand chief whom the writer is
pleased to term "the crown," but why, as is evident from the
description given, bears no resemblance to a modern monarch. The
chiefs who direct the councils of the municipalities are limited
in their powers by "the traditional immunities of the vassals,"
the decision of all criminal cases and the administration of
justice being in the hands of the local judges. In the
descriptions given of their governmental proceedings, it is
stated that the whole course of law is considered apart from the
jurisdiction of the sovereign, who has no power to either change
or annul the enactments of the people.
Here, it is observed, exists almost the identical form of
government which was in use among the early historic nations,
before governments came to be founded on wealth, or on a
territorial basis[67]; or, in other words, before the monied and
aristocratic classes had drawn to themselves all the powers which
had formerly belonged to the people.
[67] See The Evolution of Woman, p. 238.
We must bear in mind the fact that under these earlier
democratical institutions, the term "people" included not only
men but women, and as the grand chief, the local rulers, and the
judges held their positions by virtue of their descent from, or
relationship to, some real or traditional leader of the gens, who
during all the earlier ages was a woman, we may believe that the
power of women to depose their political leaders so soon as their
conduct became obnoxious to them was absolute and
unquestioned.
Doubtless, as we have seen, the government of Oman has
undergone a considerable degree of modification since the days of
Cushite splendor and supremacy; that, like all other nations
which have come in contact with the Aryan and Semitic races, the
tendency has been toward monarchial government; nevertheless,
with its practically free institutions, representing as they do,
in a measure, the political system of the grandest and oldest
civilizations of which we have any knowledge, it furnishes an
illustration of the degree of progress possible under gentile
organization, at the same time that it points to the source
whence has proceeded the fierce democratic spirit observed among
succeeding nations, notably the Greeks.
Modern writers agree in ascribing to the Touaricks, a people
inhabiting the Desert of Sahara, a considerable degree of
civilization. We are informed that in the Sahara, which, by the
way, is far less a barren waste than we have been taught to
suppose it, "the Touaricks have towns, cities, and an excellent
condition of agriculture"; that with them fruit is cultivated
with great success and skill. Their method of political
organization is democratic and similar in construction and
administration to the old Cushite municipalities. Baldwin,
quoting from Richardson, says: "Ghat, like all the Touarick
countries, is a republic; all the people govern. The woman of the
Touaricks is not the woman of the Moors and Mussulmans generally.
She has here great liberty, and takes an active part in the
affairs and transactions of life."[68]
[68] Prehistoric Nations, p. 341.
One who is disposed to search for it, will find no lack of
evidence going to prove that in an earlier age of the world,
prior to the written records of extant history, the human race
had attained to a stage of civilization equal in all and superior
in many respects to that of the present time.
That this remarkable stage of progress, the actual extent of
which has not yet been fully realized, was attained during a
period of pure Nature-worship, or while the earth and the sun
were venerated as emblems of the great creative energy throughout
the universe, is a proposition which, when viewed by the light of
more recently acquired facts, is perfectly reasonable, and
exactly what might be expected.
That this high stage of civilization was reached while women
were the recognized heads of families and of the gentes, and at a
time when Perceptive Wisdom, or the female energy in the Deity,
was worshipped as the supreme God, is a fact which in time will
be proved beyond a doubt. Indeed, had not the judgment of man
become warped by prejudice, and his reason clogged by
superstition and sensuality, the fact so plainly apparent in all
ancient mythologies, that in the early god-idea two principles
were contained, the female being in the ascendancy, would long
ere this have been acknowledged, and our present religious
systems, which are but outgrowths from these mythologies, would,
with the partial return of civilized conditions, have been so
modified or changed as to embrace some of the fundamental truths
which formed the basis of early religion.
Regarding the religion of the ancient race which we have been
considering, we are told that they worshipped a dual Deity, under
the appellations of Ashtaroth and Baal, and that this God
"comprehended the generative or reproductive powers in human
beings and in the sun, together with Wisdom or Light." In other
words, they adored the great moving force throughout Nature, a
force which they venerated as the Great Mother.
Before the Zend and Sanskrit branches of the Aryan race had
separated, their religion was doubtless that given them by their
Cushite civilizers. The worship of the sun and the planets, with
which were inextricably interwoven the fructifying agencies in
Nature, explains their devotion to the study of the heavenly
bodies and their advanced knowledge of astronomy. The types of
regeneration or reproduction which they venerated were symbols of
abstract principles, and, from facts connected with their
religious ceremonies as practiced by their immediate successors,
and from the pure significance attached to their emblems, we are
justified in the conclusion before referred to, that the sensuous
element, which became so prominent in later religious
developments, constituted no part of their worship.
The number of ages during which the most primitive religion,
namely, that of pure Nature-worship, prevailed among the
inhabitants of the earth may not be conjectured, and the exact
length of time during which earth and sun adoration unalloyed by
serpent and phallic faiths remained is not known. It is probable,
however, that its duration is to be measured by that of the
supremacy of the altruistic or mother element in human affairs,
and that the gradual engrafting of the later-developed sensuous
faiths upon their earlier god-idea, marks the change from female
to male supremacy.
We have observed that whenever a remnant of the civilization
of the ancient Cushites appears, exactly as might be expected,
women hold an exalted position in human affairs, at the same time
that the female principle constitutes the essential element in
the Deity.
Of the ancient Persians who received their religion and their
civilization from this older race Malcolm observes:
"The great respect in which the female sex was held
was, no doubt, the principal cause of the progress they made in
civilization. . . . It would appear that in former days the women
of Persia had an assigned and honorable place in society; and we
must conclude that an equal rank with the male creation, which is
secured to them by the ordinances of Zoroaster, existed long
before the time of that reformer, who paid too great attention to
the habits and prejudices of his countrymen to have made any
serious alteration in so important an usage. We are told by
Quintus Curtius, that Alexander would not sit in the presence of
Sisygambis, till told to do so by that matron, because it is not
the custom in Persia for sons to sit in the presence of their
mothers. There can be no stronger proof than this anecdote
affords, of the great respect in which the female sex were held
in that country, at the time of this invasion."[69]
[69] See History of Persia.
No one I think can study the sacred books of the Persians
without observing the emphasis which is there placed on purity of
character and right living. Indeed, within no extant writings is
the antithesis between good and evil more strongly marked, at the
same time that their hatred of idolatry is clearly apparent. The
same is observed in the early writings of the Hindoos. Within the
Vedas, although they have been corrupted by later writers, may
still be traced a purity of thought and life which is not
apparent in the writings of later ages. Not long ago I was
informed by a learned native of India that the original writing
of the Vedas was largely the work of women.
That the early conceptions of a Deity in which women
constituted the central and supreme figure were in Egypt
correlated with the exercise of great temporal power, may not, in
view of the facts at hand, longer be doubted. By means of records
revealed on ancient monuments, we are informed that in the age of
Amunoph I. a considerable degree of sovereign power in Egypt was
exercised by a woman, Amesnofre-are, who had shared the throne
with Ames. She occupied it also with Amunoph, and,
notwithstanding the statement of Herodotus, that women did not
serve in the capacity of priests, this Queen is represented as
pouring out libations to Amon, an office which was doubtless the
highest connected with the priesthood.
Less than forty years later, it is observed that another
woman, Amun-nou-het, shared the throne with Thotmes I. and II.
and that "she appears to have enjoyed far greater consideration
than either of them." Not alone are monuments raised in her name,
but she appears dressed as a man, and "alone presenting offerings
to the gods." So important a personage was she that she is
believed by many to be the princess who conquered the country,
perhaps even Semiramis herself. Her title was the "Shining
Sun."[70]
[70] Rawlinson, History of Herodotus, app., book ii., ch. viii.
As these women doubtless belonged to the old Arabian,
Ethiopian, or Cushite race, the people who had brought
civilization to Egypt, we are not surprised to find them holding
positions which were connected with the highest civil and
religious offices. The Labyrinth, in the country of the Nile, is
described by ancient writers as containing three thousand
chambers. Strabo says of it that the enclosure contained as many
palaces as there formerly were homes, and that there the priests
and priestesses of each department were wont to congregate to
discuss difficult and important questions of law.
According to the Greeks, the Egyptian God Osiris corresponds
to their Jupiter; and Sate, the companion of Kneph, is identical
with Juno. It is quite evident, however, that the Greeks
understood little of the true significance of the gods which they
had borrowed, or which they had inherited from older nations. It
would seem that as a people their conceit prevented them from
acknowledging the dignity even of their gods, hence, they endowed
them with the attributes best suited to their own depraved taste
or pleasure, and then worshipped them as beings like
themselves.
It has been observed of the Egyptians that they were wont to
ridicule the Greeks for regarding their gods as actual beings,
while in reality "they were only the representations of the
attributes and principles of Nature." Unlike the religions which
succeeded it, Egyptian mythology, as understood by the learned,
was essentially philosophical, and dealt with abstractions and
principles rather than with personalities.
Notwithstanding the importance which in process of time came
to be claimed by males, and the consequent stimulation which was
given to the animal tendencies, it is evident, from certain
historical and undeniable proofs in connection with this subject,
that although woman's power in Egypt, as in all other countries,
gradually became weakened, the effect of her influence on manners
and social customs was never wholly extinguished.
Regarding the existence of polygamy, it has been said that the
high position occupied in ancient Egypt by the mother of the
family, the mistress of the household, is absolutely
irreconcilable with the existence of polygamy as a general
practice, or of such an institution as the harem. Although the
plurality of wives does not appear to have been contrary to law,
it "certainly was unusual," and although Egyptian kings
frequently had many wives, "they followed foreign rather than
native custom."[71]
[71] Renouf, Religion of Ancient Egypt, p. 81.
Herodotus says of the women of Egypt: "They attend the markets
and trade while the men sit at home at the loom"[72]; and
Diodorus informs us that in Egypt "women control the men."
[72] Book ii., ch. xxxv.
Were we in possession of no direct historical evidence to
prove that down to a late period in the history of Egypt women
had not lost their prestige, sufficient evidence would be found
in the fact that, notwithstanding the growing tendency of mankind
in all the nations of the globe to suppress the female instincts
and to reject, conceal, or belittle the woman element in the
Deity, still Isis, the gracious mother, retained a prominent
place in the god-idea of that country.
I am not unmindful of the remarks which a reference to a past
age of intellectual and moral greatness will call forth; indeed,
I can almost hear some devotee of the present time remark: "So we
are asked to regard as a sober fact the existence in the past of
a golden age; also to believe that man was created pure and holy,
and that he has since fallen from his high estate; in other
words, we are to have faith in the ancient tradition of the 'fall
of man.'" If by the fall of man we are to understand that a great
and universal people, who in a remote age of the world's history
had reached a high stage of civilization, gradually passed out of
human existence, and that a lower race, which was incapable of
attaining to their estate, and which, by the over- stimulation of
the lower propensities, sank into a state of barbarism, in which
the original sublime conceptions of a Deity were obscured and the
great learning of the past was lost, I can see no reason to
disbelieve it, especially as all the facts, both of tradition and
history, bearing upon this subject unite in proclaiming its
truth.
After stating that in Chaldea has been found rather the debris
of science than the elements of it, Bailly asks:
"When you see a house built of old capitals, columns,
and other fragments of beautiful architecture, do you not
conclude that a fine building has once existed? . . . If the
human mind can ever flatter itself with having been successful in
discovering the truth, it is when many facts, and these facts of
different kinds, unite in producing the same
results."
That the descendants of a once mighty nation lapsed into
barbarism, forgetting the profound knowledge of the sciences
possessed by their ancestors, is a fact too well attested at the
present time to be doubted by those who have taken the pains to
acquaint themselves with the evidence at hand.
Regarding the manner in which this ancient civilization was
reached, or concerning the way in which it was achieved, history
and tradition are alike silent, although it is believed that the
present methods of investigation will, at least in a measure,
unravel the mystery. At present we only know that, as far in the
remote past as human ken can reach, evidences of a high stage of
civilization exist which it must have required thousands upon
thousands of years to accomplish.