Part 146 (1/2)
[542:1] Darwin's Journal, p. 213.
[542:2] Ibid. pp. 220, 221.
[542:3] This is seen from the fact that they did not know the use of iron. Had they known the use of this metal, they would surely have gone to work and dug into their mountains, which are abundantly filled with ore, and made use of it.
[542:4] The Aztecs were preceded by the Toltecs, Chichimecks, and the Nahualtecs. (Humboldt's New Spain, p. 133, vol. i.)
”The races of barbarians which successively followed each other from the north to the south always murdered, hunted down, and subdued the previous inhabitants, and formed in course of time a new social and political life upon the ruins of the old system, to be again destroyed and renewed in a few centuries, by a new invasion of barbarians. The later native conquerors in the New World can, of course, no more be considered in the light of original inhabitants than the present races of men in the Old World.”
[543:1] Fusang, p. 56.
[543:2] Quoted in Fusang, p. 71.
[543:3] Science of Religion, p. 121.
[543:4] Mexican Antiq., vol. vi. p. 161.
[543:5] Early Hist. Mankind, p. 307.
APPENDIX B.
Commencing at the farthest East we shall find the ancient religion of _China_ the same as that which was universal in all quarters of the globe, viz., an adoration of the Sun, Moon, Stars and elements.[544:1]
That the Chinese religion was in one respect the same as that of India, is seen from the fact that they named successive days for the same seven planets that the Hindoos did.[544:2] The ancient books of the Chinese show that astronomy was not only understood by them at a very early period, but that it formed an important branch of state policy, and the basis of public ceremonies. Eclipses are accurately recorded which occurred twenty centuries before Jesus; and the Confucian books refer continually to observations of the heavenly bodies and the rectification of the calendar. The ancient Chinese astronomers seem to have known precisely the excess of the solar year beyond 365 days. The _religion_ of China, under the emperors who preceded the first dynasty, is an enigma. The notices in the only authentic works, the _King_, are on this point scanty, vague, and obscure. It is difficult to separate what is spoken with reference to the science of _astronomy_ from that which may relate to _religion_, properly so called. The terms of reverence and respect, with which the _heavenly bodies_ are spoken of in the _Shoo-King_, seem to warrant the inference that those terms have more than a mere astronomical meaning, _and that the ancient religion_ of _China partook_ of _star-wors.h.i.+p, one of the oldest heresies in the world_.[545:1]
In _India_ the Sun, Moon, Stars and the powers of Nature were wors.h.i.+ped and personified, and each quality, mental and physical, had its emblem, which the Brahmans taught the ignorant to regard as realities, till the Pantheon became crowded.
”Our Aryan ancestors learned to look up to the sky, the Sun, and the dawn, and there to see the presence of a living power, half-revealed, and half-hidden from their senses, those senses which were always postulating something beyond what they could grasp. They went further still. In the bright sky they perceived an _Illuminator_, in the all-encircling firmament an _Embracer_, in the roar of the thunder or in the voice of the storm they felt the presence of a _Shouter_ and of furious _Strikers_, and out of the rain they created an _Indra_, or giver of rain.”[545:2]
Prof. Monier Williams, speaking of ”the hymns of the _Veda_,” says:
”To what deities, it will be asked, were the prayers and hymns of these collections addressed? The answer is: They wors.h.i.+ped _those physical forces_ before which _all nations_, if guided solely by the light of nature, have in the early period of their life, instinctively bowed down, and before which even the most civilized and enlightened have always been compelled to bend in awe and reverence, if not in adoration.”[545:3]
The following sublime description of _Night_ is an extract from the _Vedas_, made by Sir William Jones:
”Night approaches, illumined with stars and planets, and, looking on all sides with numberless eyes, overpowers all meaner lights. The immortal G.o.ddess pervades the firmament, covering the low valleys and shrubs, the lofty mountains and trees, but soon she disturbs the gloom with celestial effulgence. Advancing with brightness, at length she recalls her sister _Morning_; and the nightly shade gradually melts away. May she at this time be propitious! She, in whose early watch we may calmly recline in our mansions, as birds repose upon the trees. Mankind now sleep in their towns; now herds and flocks peacefully slumber, and the winged creatures, swift falcons, and vultures. O Night! avert from us the she-wolf and the wolf; and, oh! suffer us to pa.s.s thee in soothing rest! Oh, morn! remove in due time this black, yet visible overwhelming darkness, which at present enfolds me, as thou enablest me to remove the cloud of their dells. _Daughter of Heaven_, I approach thee with praise, as the cow approaches her milker; accept, O Night! not the hymn only, but the oblation of thy suppliant, who prays that his foes may be subdued.”
Some of the princ.i.p.al G.o.ds of the Hindoo Pantheon are, Dyaus (the Sky), Indra (the Rain-giver), Surya (the Sun), the Maruts (Winds), Aditi, (the Dawn), Parvati (the Earth),[546:1] and Siva, her consort. The wors.h.i.+p of the SUN is expressed in a variety of ways, and by a mult.i.tude of fanciful names. One of the princ.i.p.al of these is _Crishna_. The following is a prayer addressed to him:
”Be auspicious to my lay, O Chrishna, thou only G.o.d of the seven heavens, who swayest the universe through the immensity of s.p.a.ce and matter. O universal and resplendent Sun! Thou mighty governor of the heavens; thou sovereign regulator of the connected whole; thou sole and universal deity of mankind; thou gracious and Supreme Spirit; my n.o.blest and most happy inspiration is thy praise and glory. Thy power I will praise, for thou art my sovereign Lord, whose bright image continually forces itself on my attention, eager imagination. Thou art the Being to whom heroes pray in perils of war; nor are their supplications vain, when thus they pray; whether it be when thou illuminest the eastern region with thy orient light, when in thy meridian splendor, or when thou majestically descendest in the West.”
Crishna is made to say:
”I am the light in the Sun and Moon, far, far beyond the darkness. I am the brilliancy in flame, the radiance in all that's radiant, and the light of lights.”[546:2]
In the _Maha-bharata_, Crishna, who having become the son of Aditi (the Dawn), is called _Vishnu_, another name for the Sun.[546:3] The demon _Putana_ a.s.saults the child Crishna, which identifies him with Hercules, the Sun-G.o.d of the Greeks.[546:4] In his Solar character he must again be the slayer of the Dragon or Black-snake _Kulnika_, the ”Old Serpent”
with the thousand heads.[546:5] Crishna's amours with the maidens makes him like Indra, Phoibus, Hercules, Samson, Alpheios, Paris and other Sun-G.o.ds. This is the hot and fiery Sun greeting the moon and the dew, or the Sun with his brides the _Stars_.[546:6]
Moore, in his Hindu Pantheon, observes: