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TRUE SPIRIT OF PAGAN RELIGIONS.

It seems to be an undeniable fact, that, before the coming of Jesus Christ, nations had immemorially and universally believed, that the universe, or nature, was an uncreated but animated being, whose vast body comprised the earth, the sun, the planets and the stars, to which one great soul impressed motion and life. Also they believed that all those principal parts, or, in other words, principal members of the body of the universe, were animated by emanations or irradiations of the great soul of the universe, or nature. This Pantheistic doctrine we find recorded by the Chaldean Zoroaster, in his Zend-Avesta; by the Phœnician Sanchoniaton in his Mythological History; by the author of the Indian Vedam; and by the Chinese Confucius, in his Theology. Weighty is the testimony of those authors, who lived, Confucius perhaps excepted, at about the time of Moses. Also, the above doctrine they themselves believed and taught. More, we find the same testimony, the same doctrine, and the same teaching, in nearly all the works of the celebrated poets, orators and philosophers of posterior ages.

Pliny, the historian and naturalist, writes: "The world, or what we call the heaven, which, in its vast embrace, encircles all beings, is a God eternal, immense, uncreated and immortal. To seek any thing beyond it is beyond man's reach, and is vain labor. Behold, the universe is the Being truly sacred, the Being eternal, immense, comprising all in himself: he is all in all, or rather he is himself all. He is the work of nature, and nature itself."

We read in the sixth book of Eneida, by Virgil: "Know, O my son! that the heavens and the earth, the deep, the bright globe of the moon, and all stars are moved by a principle of inly life, which perpetuates its existence; that it is a great intelligent soul, extending to all the parts of the vast body of the universe; and which, connected with all, impresses to all an eternal movement. This soul is the source of the life of man, of that of flocks, birds, and of all the monsters of the deep. The bright force that animates them emanates from that eternal fire that shines in the sky, and which, a captive in the gross matter of bodies, develops itself only as permitted by the divers mortal organizations that blunt its force and activity. At the death of each animal those germs of particular life return to their source, and to the principle of life that circulates in the starry sphere."

This belief led men to the worship of the universe, or nature, and became the basis of their mythology. They adored the vast body of nature, and its great soul, under the name of Supreme Being, of Jupiter, of Vichnou, of Pan, etc. They adored the earth, the sun, the planets and the stars under other names. They erected temples, altars, statues and chapels to those deities, and worshiped them—not the wood, stone, or marble, as they are unjustly accused of, but the emanations of the great soul of the universe, which animated all those principal members of the vast body of nature, whose might and influence impressed them with wonder, terror or gratitude, and thus attracted their adoration.

The Chinese adored the heavens under the name of great Tien. The Supreme Being in the Chou-King is designated by the name of Tien, which means from heaven, and of Chang-Tien, supreme heaven. They had reared temples to the sun, to the moon, and to the stars; and also one to the great being formed of the sky, of the earth and of the elements—being which is the universe named by them Tay-ki. They worshiped the heavens at the time of the two solstices. The Japanese adored the stars and planets which they supposed to be animated by geniuses or gods. They had a temple dedicated to the splendor of the sun. They celebrated the feast of the moon on the 7th of September, and spent the whole night in rejoicing by her light. The Chinese and the Japanese practice the same worship even in our days.

The Egyptians adored the sun under the name of Osiris, and the moon under the name of Iris. To them both they ascribed the government of the world. They built, to honor Osiris, the City of the Sun, or Heliopolis, and also a splendid temple in which they placed his statue. They worshiped all the stars and planets which compose the Zodiac. The animals consecrated in the Egyptian temples, and religiously revered, represented the various functions of the supreme cause; and they referred to the sky, to the sun, to the moon, and to the constellations.

The Phœnicians worshiped the moon and the stars. They adored the sun under the name of Hercules. The Ethiopians adored the sun and the moon; and Diodorus informs us, that those of their tribes who inhabited the country above Meroe adored the sun, the moon, and the universe. They called themselves the sons of the sun: Persina was the priestess of the moon, and the king, her husband, was the priest of the sun. All the Africans who were settled along the coast of Angola, and of Congo, worshiped the sun and the moon; so the inhabitants of the island of Teneriffe did. The oldest worship of the Arabs was Sabism, the religion universally spread in the Orient: the heaven and the stars were objects of veneration. The moon was more especially adored. The Saracens called her Cabar, which means great: even now-a-days her crescent adorns the religious monuments of the Turks. Among the Arabs each tribe was under the invocation or patronage of a star.

The Sabism was also the religion of the ancient Chaldeans. Even now there is at Helle, on the ruins of Babylon, a mosque named Meshed Eschams, or Mosque of the Sun. In this city was the temple of Belus, or of the sun, the great deity of the Babylonians. To this same god the Persians reared temples and consecrated images, under the name of Mithra. They also honored the heaven under the name of Jupiter, the moon and Venus, the fire, the earth, the air or wind, and water. The fire ether that circulates in the whole universe, and of which the sun is the main force, was represented in the Pyrees by the sacred fire kept incessantly burning by the wizards, or priests. At Tymbree, in Troades, the sun was adored under the name of Apollo. The island of Rhodes was consecrated to the sun, to whom the colossal statue, known under the name of the Colossus of Rhodes, was erected. The Massagetes, the Abasges, the Derbises, the Tartars, the Moscanians, the Tchouvaches, the Toungouses, the Huns, all the Scytic nations, the Iberians, the Albanians, the Colchidians, the Phrygians, and the Laodiceans, worshiped the earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars, under various emblems.

Plato informs us that the ancient Greeks had no other gods than the sun, the moon, the earth, the stars, water, and fire. Orpheus considered the sun as the greatest of the gods, and adored him upon mounts at his rise. Epicharmis, disciple of Pythagoras, called gods the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, water and fire. Agamemnon, in Homer, sacrificed to the sun and to the earth. The choir, in the Œdipus of Sophocles, invokes the sun as being the first among the gods, and their chief. The earth was worshiped in the island of Cos. Also the earth had a temple at Athens and at Sparta; and an altar and oracle at Olympia.

When we read Pausanias, who has described Greece and her religious monuments, we find everywhere traces of the worship of nature. We see temples, altars, and statues, consecrated to the sun, to the moon, to the earth, to the Pleiades, to the celestial auriga, to the goat, to the bear, or Calisto, to the night, to rivers, etc. The inhabitants of Megalopolis sacrificed to the wind Boreas, and had planted a grove in his honor. The Macedonians adored Estia, or fire, and prayed to Bedy, or water. Alexander, king of Macedonia, sacrificed to the sun, to the moon, and to the earth. The oracle of Dodone, in all its answers, ordered sacrifices to the Achelous river. Homer gave the epithet of sacred to the waters of the Alpheus. Nestor and the Pylians sacrificed a bull to the same river. Achilles let his hair grow in honor of Sphercius; he also invoked the wind Boreas and the Zephyrus.

Rivers were reputed as being sacred and divine, because of their utility to vegetation, to animals, and to commerce; and because nations considered water as one of the first principles of nature, and one of the most efficacious agents of the universal life of the Great-Being in which they believed. In Thessalia a sacred crow was fed in honor of the sun. This bird is seen yet on the monuments of Mithra, in Persia. The temples of old Byzantium were consecrated to the sun, to the moon, and to Venus. Their idols represented them; also the star Arcture, and the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Rome and Italy had also a vast number of monuments of worship addressed to nature, and to its principal agents. Tatius, coming to Rome to share the sceptre of Romulus, erected altars and temples to the sun, to the moon, to Saturn, to light, and to fire. The undying fire, or Vesta, was the most ancient object of worship of the Romans; virgins had the care to perpetuate it in the temple of this Goddess, as the wizards did in their Pyrees. "It was," Jornandes said, "an image of the eternal lights which shine in the heavens."

In Rome there was a famous temple called Tellus, or of the earth, in which the senate often met. The earth was called mother, because it was considered as a deity as well as the manes. There was in the Latium a fountain of the sun, and, near it, two altars upon which Æneas, when landing in Italy, sacrificed. Romulus established the games of the circus to honor both the sun, who in his course measures the year, and the four elements which he modifies by his mighty influence. Aurelian built at Rome the temple of the sun, and decked it with gold and precious stones. Augustus, before Aurelian, had ordered the images of the sun and of the moon to be brought from Egypt, in order to adorn his triumph over Anthony and Cleopatra. The moon had a temple on the mount Aventine.

In Sicily oxen were consecrated to the sun; and the island itself was called the Island of the Sun. The oxen which the companions of Ulysse ate when they landed, were consecrated to this god. The citizens of Assora adored the Chrysas river, that bathed their walls. At Enguyum the people revered the mother-goddesses, the same deities honored in Crete; namely, the major and minor Ursas. In Spain the people of Betic had built a temple to the morning star. The Accitans had erected to the god Sun, under the name of Mars, a statue whose head imitated the rays of the sun. At Cadix the sun was also adored, under the name of Hercules. All the nations of northern Europe, called Celtes, worshiped fire, water, the air, the sun, the moon, the stars, the trees, and the springs. The conqueror of Gaul, Cæsar, writes that the Germans immemorially adored the visible cause, and its principal agents, the sun, the moon, fire or Vulcain, and the earth, under the name of Herta. Near Narbonne, a city of Gaul, a temple was dedicated to the wind Circius which purified the atmosphere. At Toulouse there was a temple of the sun. The Franks professed the same religion.

In America the Incas of Peru called themselves the sons of the sun: they dedicated temples and altars to this god, and had instituted feasts in his honor. The moon was associated to his worship, and was considered as the mother of all the sublunar productions; and as the spouse and sister of the sun. In Peru, the star Venus was adored, and also the meteors, the thunder, and Iris, or rainbow. Virgins had the care of keeping alive the perpetual fire. In Mexico the same religion existed. The inhabitants of the Isthmus of Panama, of Brazil, of Florida; the Indians of the coast of Cumana, the Floridians, Virginians, and the Canadians believed that there was a god in the heavens, and that this god was the sun, the spouse of the moon. They worshiped them as the two supreme causes which ruled the world.

The above historical facts lead us to the conclusion that the adoration of the vast body of nature, together with the great soul which was supposed to animate it; and of its principal parts or members, together with the multifarious emanations of the great soul, which was supposed to animate them, was the former and universal religion of mankind, before the coming of Jesus Christ. Therefore the heathens did not worship the idols themselves, to which they had given such and such forms to represent the objects of their adorations; but they worshiped what in their mind they represented, the universe taken collectively, as in the idol of Pan; and the universe taken separately; namely, the important parts of the universe, as in their innumerable idols of the planets, stars, rivers, etc.

As we wish to leave no doubt in the minds of the reader in regard to the certainty of these two great facts, which are a key to the origin of the dogma of endless misery, and of others which we are to trace out, we will bring forth other proofs from the religious and political monuments of ancient peoples; from their celebrations, and from the opinions of their philosophers.

The famous labyrinth of Egypt was dedicated to the sun. It formed twelve palaces, representing the twelve signs of the Zodiac. There were in Heliopolis, or City of the Sun, twelve columns adorned with symbols relating to the elements, and to the twelve signs. These gigantic piles had a pyramidal shape to better represent the rays of the sun, and the form of his rising blaze. The statue of Apollo Agyeus was pyramidal. In Egypt, artists were not entrusted with determining the form of the images and statues of the gods. It was one of the prerogatives of the Hierophants, or priests, who were more familiar with astronomy. This fact explains why the number seven, which represented the number of planets, and the number twelve, which represented the number of the signs, were sacred numbers, and were reproduced under all kinds of forms. So the twelve altars of Janus; the twelve works of Hercules or sun; the twelve shields of Mars; the twelve brothers Arvaux; the twelve gods Consentes; the twelve rays of light; the twelve governors in the Manichean system; the twelve adeetyas of the Indians; the twelve azes of the Scandinaves; the twelve wards of the city planned by Plato; the four tribes of Athens subdivided into three frateries according to Cecrops' division; the twelve cushions on which the creator sits, in the theogony of the Japanese; the twelve cantons of the Etruse league, and their twelve Lucumons, or chiefs of cantons; the confederation of the twelve cities of Ionia, and that of the twelve cities of Eolia; the twelve Tcheou into which Chun divided China; the twelve countries into which the Coreans divided the world; the twelve officers chosen to draw the coffin at the funeral of the King of Tunquin; the twelve horses; the twelve elephants, etc., used in that ceremony.

It was the same with the number seven representing the planets. So the seven divisions of the city of Ecbatane; the seven gates of the cavern of Mithra, or sun; the seven floors of the tower of Babylon, with another representing the heaven, and also the temple of Jupiter; the seven gates of the city of Thebes, called each one by the name of a planet; the seven piped flute placed in the hands of the god Pan who represented the universe; the seven stringed lyre of Apollo, or sun; the book of fate composed of seven memorandums; the seven prophetic rings of the Brachmanes, on which the name of a planet was engraved; the seven stones dedicated to planets in Laconia; the immemorial division into seven tribes adopted by the Egyptians and the Indians; the seven idols pompously carried every year by the Bonzes into seven different temples; the seven mystical vowels which formed the sacred formula in the temples of the planets; the seven Pyrees or altars of the monument of Mithra; the seven Amshaspands, or great geniuses, invoked by the Persians; the seven Archangels of the Chaldeans; the seven sounding towers of old Byzantium; the week in all nations, or the period of seven days consecrated each one to a planet, as can be illustrated. For instance, in French, Monday is called Lundi, which is derived from the latin Luna, meaning moon. Tuesday is called Mardi, meaning Mars. Wednesday is called Mercredi, meaning Mercury. Thursday is called Jeudi, meaning Jupiter. Friday is called Vendredi, meaning Venus. Saturday is called Samedi, meaning Saturn. It could also be illustrated by other languages derived from the Latin.

The number three hundred and sixty, which is that of the days of the year, not comprising, however, the epagomenes or complementary days, was also retraced by the three hundred and sixty days comprised in the theology of Orpheus; by the three hundred and sixty cups of the water of the Nile, of which one was poured every day, by the Egyptian priests, in a sacred cask, in the city of Achante; by the three hundred and sixty Eons, or geniuses of the Gnostics; by the three hundred and sixty idols placed in the palace of the Daïri in Japan; by the three hundred and sixty saints, or geniuses, who, the Papists believe, preside to each day of the year, (as seen in their almanacs,) dogma borrowed from the heathens; by the three hundred and sixty minor statues which surrounded that of Hebal, or the god sun, Belus, adored by the ancient Arabs; by the three hundred and sixty chapels built around the mosque of Balk, erected by the care of the chief of the family of the Barmecides; by the three hundred and sixty temples built on the mountain Louham, in China; by the wall of three hundred and sixty stadiums with which Semiramis encompassed the city of Belus, or of the sun, the famous Babylon. In fine, the division of the Zodiac into twenty-seven parts, which express the stations of the moon, and into thirty-six which is that of the decans, was also the object of the political and religious distributions.

Not only the divisions of the heaven, but the constellations themselves were represented in the temples, and their images consecrated among the religious monuments, and on the medals of the cities. The bright star Capella, in the constellation Auriga, had a statue of brass gilt in the city of the Phliassians. To the constellation Auriga statues and other monuments had been erected in Greece under the names of Myrtile, of Hippolyte, of Spherœus, of Cillas, of Erectee, etc. There were seen, also, the statues and tombs of the Atlantides. Near Argos was seen a mound, which was said to cover the head of the famous Medusa, whose type is in the heaven, under the feet of Perseus. The moon, or Diana of Ephesus, was adorned with the figure of the Cancer, which is one of the twelve signs, and the mansion of this planet. The Ursa, adored under the name of Calisto, and the Bootes, under that of Arcas, had their tombs on Arcadia, near the altars of the sun. To the same Bootes a statue was erected at Byzantium, and also to Orion, the famous Nembrod of the Assyrians.

The Syrians had consecrated in their temples the images of Pisces, (fishes,) one of the signs. The constellations Nesra, or Eagle, Aiyuk, or Goat, Yagutho, or Pleiades, and Suwaha, or Alhouwoa, and the Serpentarius were objects of idolatry among the ancient Sabians. These names are found even now in Hyde's commentary on Ulug-Beigh. Lucian writes that the whole religious system of the Egyptians was taken from the heaven. The most of the cities were founded and built under the inspection and protection of one of the signs of the Zodiac. Their horoscope was drawn; hence the images of stars on their medals. The medals of Antioch represent the Ram, (Aries) with the crescent of the moon; those of the Mamertines the image of the Bull, (Taurus); those of the kings of Comargene, the image of the Scorpion; and those of Zeugma and of Anazarba, the image of the Goat, (Capricornus). Nearly all the signs are found on the medals of the Antonines. The star Hesperus was on the national seal of the Locrians, of the Ozoles, and of the Opuntians.

Likewise we shall remark that the ancient feasts, or celebrations, were connected with the principal epochs of nature, and with the heavenly system. Everywhere the solsticial and equinoxial celebrations are found; even in our days the Catholics celebrate the beginning of each season of the year by fasting and abstaining from meat. Fohi, one of the most ancient emperors of China, ordered sacrifices to be offered to the gods at the commencement of each season. Four pavilions were erected to the moons of the four seasons. The ancient Chinese, Confucius says, established a sacrifice in honor of Chang-Ty, at the winter solstice, and one in the spring. The emperor alone has the privilege to preside at these two ceremonies, as being the son of heaven. The Greeks and the Romans did the same for like reasons.

The Persians have their Neurouz, or feast of the sun, when this king of the day passes under the Ram, or under the sign of the equinox of the spring. It is even now one of the greatest festivities in Persia. At the winter's solstice the ancient Egyptians led the sacred cow seven times around the temple; and at the equinox of the spring they solemnly celebrated the coming of the sun to once more vivify nature. The celebration of the triumph of fire and light took place in the city of the sun, in Assyria, and was called the celebration of wood-piles. The Catholic Church has borrowed this celebration from the heathen, and has fixed it on the Saturday before Easter.

The feasts celebrated by the Sabians to honor the planets, were fixed under the sign of their exaltation; sometimes under that of their mansion; so the feast of Saturn was celebrated by the Romans in December, under the Capricornus (Goat), mansion of this planet. All the celebrations of the old calendar of the Pontiffs were connected with the rise or setting of some constellation or star, as can be ascertained by reading the Fastes of Ovide. The religious genius of the Romans, and the relations of their celebrations with nature, are more especially seen in the games of the circus. The sun, the moon, the planets, the elements, the universe and its principal parts, were represented with emblems analagous to their nature. In the Hippodrome the sun was seen with steeds which imitated its course in the heavens.

The fields of Olympia were represented by a vast arena consecrated to the sun. In the middle there was a temple of this god, crowned with his image. The limits of the course of the sun, the Orient and the Occident, were traced, and marked by limits placed at the extremities of the circus. The races took place from the east to the west seven times, because of the seven planets. The sun, the moon, Jupiter and Venus, had each one a chariot. The Aurigæ or drivers, wore garments representing the colors of the elements. The chariot of the sun was drawn by four steeds, and that of the moon by two. The Zodiac was represented in the circus by twelve gates; and also the revolution of the major and minor Ursas. The sea, or Neptune, the earth, or Ceres, and the other elements, were personified in actors who contended for the prize.

The phases of the moon were also celebrated, and particularly the neomeny or new-moon; for temples images and mysteries had been dedicated to the god Month, or Mensis. All the ceremonial of the procession of Isis, described in Apuleo, refers to nature and its parts. The sacred hymns of the ancients had the same object, if we may judge of them by those of Orpheus. Chun, one of the most ancient emperors of China, ordered many hymns to be composed to honor the sun, the moon, the stars, etc. All the prayers contained in the books Zends had the same objects. The poetical chants of ancient authors, who have transmitted to us the theogonies of Orpheus, of Linus, of Hesiod, etc., relate to nature and its agents. Hesiod thus addresses the Muses: "Sing the gods immortal, sons of the earth and of the starry sky; gods born from the bosom of night, and nursed by the Ocean; the bright stars, the immense vault of the firmament, and the gods sprung from them; the sea, the rivers, etc."

The songs of Iopas, in the banquet offered by Dido to the Trojans, contain the lessons of the learned Atlas about the course of the sun and of the moon; about the origin of men, of animals, etc. In the Pastorals of Virgil, the old Silene sings the chaos and the organization of the world. Orpheus does the same in the Argonautics of Apollonius. The cosmogony of Sanchoniaton, or of the Phœnicians, conceals under the veil of allegories the great secrets of nature which were taught to those initiated. The philosophers who succeeded to the poets called all the parts of the universe divine. In the opinion of Pythagoras the celestial bodies were immortal and divine. The sun, the moon, and all the stars superabundantly contained heat, or principle of life. He placed the substance of the deity in the ethereal fire, of which the sun, he said, was the main focus.

Parmenides imagined a halo around the world, and called it the substance of the deity; the stars partook of the nature thereof. Alimeon of Crotona taught that the sun, the moon, and the stars were the gods. Antisthenes acknowledged but one deity, nature. Plato attributed divinity to the world, to the sky, to the stars, and to the earth. Xenocrates and Heraclides admitted eight great gods, the seven planets and the heaven of the fixed stars. Theophrastes called the stars and the celestial signs first causes. Zenon said that the ether, the stars, time and its parts were gods. Cleanthes admitted the dogma of the divinity of the universe, and more especially of the ethereal fire that envelops the spheres, and penetrates them. Diogene, the Babylonian, related the whole mythology to nature. Chrysippus held that the world was God. He placed the divine substance in the ethereal fire, in the sun, in the moon, in the stars, in one word, in nature and its principal parts. Anaximandre, Anaximenes and Zenon had the same belief.

From this exposition of the religious and political monuments of ancient peoples, of their celebrations, and of the opinions of their philosophers; and also of the historical facts brought forth before, we draw these two logical and vital conclusions:—

1st. Therefore the adoration of the vast body of nature, together with the great soul which was supposed to animate it; and of its principal parts and members, together with the multifarious emanations of the great soul which was supposed to animate them, was the former and universal religion of mankind (excepting the Hebrews) before the coming of Jesus Christ.

2d. Therefore the heathens did not worship the idols themselves, to which they had given such and such forms to represent the objects of their adorations, but they worshiped what in their mind they represented, the universe taken collectively, as in the idol of Pan; and the universe taken separately, namely, the important parts of the universe, as in their innumerable idols of the planets, stars, rivers, etc.