CHAPTER V.

RELIGION AND SCIENCE.

Sec. I. The Science of Religion.

Mythology, in one sense, may be described as a collection of myths; and a myth, as a phenomenon dressed in verbal garb. Now, since this garment is but an effort to explain more or less clearly what has been previously understood, and since the phenomenon itself cannot be changed while the garment may be repeatedly altered to suit exigencies, it follows as a consequence that the verbal attire surrounding any one of the phenomena is later in point of time, and may not be the original garb in which it was dressed. Experience tells us that the primary effort at discovery is paralleled only by the effort to impress the truth and importance of the discovery upon the listener or reader. Is obscure or disguised speech the best means of doing so? If not-and it certainly is not-and because whatever obscurity there is in the myth is owing to the descriptive details, we have strong warrant for believing that the existing description of any one or all of the myths is the production of a later age, a garment that has been ripped, turned over, restitched and dyed to meet the exigencies of circumstances, and that, however clear and open it may now be, it was preceded by one that was still more so.

This very openness of the early mythology implies freedom and security from consequences, and so points dimly to a period of religious unity and peace, to a previous age when faith was as yet undefiled and when all men believed in and worshiped a one true God. It would be at such a time that the intellect, relieved from the necessity of fighting for God, would centre all its thoughts and energies on the task of revealing the wonders and glory of God, would probe to the quick the problem of being, and essay to build a solid and habitable earth from the shapeless and incognizable of matter. Judging by the Scriptural narrativethe only authentic guide we have of primeval life, manners, and worship-we must, in seeking such a period, go back very far indeed; beyond Solomon, who built high places "for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab," and for "Moloch, the abomination of the children of Ammon"; beyond Moses, when the Israelites

went into the daughters of Moab, and were initiated in the worship of Beelphegor; beyond Jacob, whose wife stole the idols that had found a place in the home of her father, Laban; beyond Abraham himself, who is said to have been persecuted in Ur of the Chaldees for his steadfast worship of the One True God. Beyond all these must we go; and the nearer we come to the days of Noah, the more promising become the conditions, the purely religious conditions suitable for undertaking the story of the Creation.

The mind may well be staggered at going back so far; but there seems to be no other reasonable conclusion when we remember:

(1). That Mythology is an exceedingly amplified description of the Creation, suitable for what it was intended. -a scientific narrative; and that Genesis is a highly condensed description of the same work, suitable for what it was intended-a brief religious credo.

(2). That Mythology and Genesis are but versions, one in Greek, the other in Hebrew, of the same story.

(3). That the Hebrew version pushes back this story to the time of Moses, whose narrative, as being but a summary, proves the existence of a previous and more amplified one-one from which Genesis was condensed, and one which (bearing in mind the source whence Moses is said to have derived his learning) existed among the Egyptians.

(4). That the knowledge of the Egyptians with regard to the heavens and the earth goes back to a time which it is difficult to date-to a time which, judged by the researches and opinions of modern archæologists, transcends by some thousands of years the period that we are modest enough to ask for.

(5). That the same story is told in the Babylonian, Assyrian, Iranian, and Sanskrit records, all of which dispute in point of antiquity with the Egyptian.

(6). That the historical writings, which touch and comment upon the point at issue, point to a very remote age. Callisthenes, who accompanied Alexander the Great into Asia, and was present at the capture of Babylon, found that the most ancient astronomical observations existing on record in that city, were made by the Chaldeans about nineteen centuries be

fore that period, that is to say, about the time of Nimrod, or one hundred years after the Flood.

Berosus, who flourished B. C. 261, declares that Abraham was famous for astronomical knowledge; and remarks that the longevity of the antediluvians was owing to a special dispensation of Providence, in order that men might have the time to perfect themselves in the sciences of astronomy and geometry.

Josephus declares, too, that Abraham was "a person of great sagacity"; that he conversed with the most learned among the Egyptians, and gave them instructions in astronomy, "for that science came from the Chaldeans into Egypt, and from thence to Greece." He also writes thus of Seth and his posterity (Antiq. I:2): "They also were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order"; and that they inscribed their discoveries on pillars of stone and brick in order to withstand the Deluge foretold to them by Adam.

In or about, then, the post-diluvian days of Noah, and at a time when men were still "of one language and of one speech" and of one religion, the sense of religious security, superadded to the vital faith that seeks intelligence as far as intelligence is rationally possible, would inspire the immortals of their day to write the story of the heavens and the earth. This story was in the main a scientific one (as it should be, since religious doubt existed not), intended for the mental betterment of the people at large, and serving as a rational vindication for the belief that pervaded the breasts of all: this story-the Science of religion, as it may be called-with so worthy a motive, was an eminently inspiring one, and such as should actuate those who then lived and gazed and pondered well. They lived, progenitors, as they believed, of millions who would fill the earth; successors, as they knew, of millions who had been destroyed. They gazed; and all around them lay the glory and greatness of their Maker-the heavens, the earth, and the visible relics connected with the last great incident of earth's geologic story, vast pools in the lowlands, ribbed chasms in the glens, mighty boulders on the uplands, oases of hardening mud, and the débris of overwhelmed cities. They pondered—and to a purpose: should the knowledge of the past not go down to the millions yet to come? Should

Adam, Eve, the Fall, the Promise, and the expulsion not be handed down as a warning and a hope? Should not their own genealogy be traced back in regular order to the first man; should not the arch-fratricide be branded, and that other seed for murdered Abel be recorded; should not he be remembered who walked with God, and was not, for God took him-he, too, who found grace in the eyes of the Lord-and they whose wickedness had brought about the Deluge?

If these names and incidents were to be saved from oblivion, then and then only was the time to do so, while still there lived among them some few survivors of the Flood, and especially Noah, whose father was a cotemporary of Enoch, Seth, of Adam himself whose knowledge was direct and transcended Solomon's, as Solomon's did that of the ordinary man. Nor was this all. There surely must have been a learning of their own among the dwellers before the Flood; and that this learning was far in advance of what an uncivilized people would enjoy is pointed out in Genesis iv: 17, 21, 22, where architecture, music, and metallurgy (no mean arts, it must be confessed) are specially mentioned. We read also in Genesis vi: 4, "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men: the same became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown." The reading leaves a doubt as to whether these were giants physically, intellectually, or both together; and the doubt as to the purely physical is strengthened by the concluding words. Baruch, too, (III: 26-28) while conceding their great stature, leaves the im-. pression that these renowned men, neglecting the only true wisdom-the way of the Lord-were wedded to the wisdom of the world, and so perished through their folly.

Now, since Noah was six hundred years old when he entered the ark, his experience extended over fully a third, and that the concluding one, of antediluvian time. He must, consequently, have been the possessor not alone of the direct knowledge of things derived from his father through converse with Adam, but also of all the scientific lore among the dwellers before the Flood. He would thus, seeing that he lived three hundred and fifty years after the Flood, prove a trustworthy and valuable mine of information for the compilers of the story; and what the patriarch might omit or forget would be supplied by Shem, Ham, and Japheth, each of whom had passed his first century of existence among the antediluvian livers.

It is evident, therefore, that there were many things to encourage and urge the intellectually great of early post-diluvial days to undertake the work. Let us sum them up: a unity of religious worship; a unity of oral and written speech; the fascination of the story; the mental betterment of their fellows; the stimulus to mind; the story of the heavens and the earth; the story of primal man and of the Deluge; the pride of pedigree; the pride of intellect; the wealth of information and of material facts; and last, though not least, the purely individual promptings of

"The burning thunderbolt of human Thought,

That sends the living light of Truth abroad."

And so we conceive "the Science of religion"-the open and clear exposition of mythology, the true story of the heavens and the earth—as written at a period when mankind was of the one race, religion, language and speech; and when, consequently, it was intelligible to all and interpreted after the same fashion by all. How would its teachings be disseminated? Separate copies with full details might have been delivered to each patriarch; condensed summaries to their eldest sons; and a bare list of technical names to all and every who evinced an interest in and desire for knowledge. This last, as occupying but a little time, labor and space, could be multiplied in profusion, and illustrated and explained in oral discourse by the teachers, leading men, and princes of each family.

Sec. 2. The Religion of Science.

"Exile," says Cicero, "possesses no terrors for those who regard earth as one city." The world was but one city in those primeval days, and the leaven of separation in its every form was already working. As men increased in numbers with the years, as their flocks and herds and other worldly gear throve and multiplied, and as the jealousies incidental to every crowded community arose, the tribes grew restive and hankered for pastures new, for wider fields, for change.

Scripture (Genesis xi) relates the story, and tells us how journeying from the East, they dwelt in the land of Shinar, and proceeded to build a city, and a tower "whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." What special intent they had in view is not clear; but that it boded no good is evident from the concluding lines of verse 6, and from the punishment meted out: