Error's chains

Testimony of an old record and of language--Another witness: comparative religion--The story of the master thief--The story of Rhampsinitos--The story of the poor mason--The sto...

Traditions of Creation--Traditions of the Deluge--The Chaldean story--The Hindu tradition--The Chinese tradition--The Mexican legend--The Fiji-Islander’s tradition--American Ind...

The great Chaldean historian--Ruined monuments--A library of brick books--Manners and customs--The religion of Assyria--The supreme god, Ilu--The Assyrian triad--The gods of the...

Origin of the world and of the gods--The generations of the gods--Gods of the Grecians--Specimen stories from Greek mythology--Hermes and Apollo--The Lotus-eaters and the Cyclop...

Ancient Britain--The Druids--Wonderful resemblance--Worship of the Druids--Temple of the Hanging Stones--Human sacrifices--The destruction of Druidism--Who first brought Christi...

Idols and temples of Juggernaut--Kali, the Goddess of Blood--Temple Decorations--Benares--The sacred city of the Sikhs--Cave-temples of Elephanta and Gwalior--Ganesha, God of Wi...

The Vedic hymns--The law-book of Manu--Degradation of women according to Manu’s laws--The burning of widows commanded by Manu--The god Vishnu made man--A Sanskrit story-book--Th...

African belief in a god or gods--Praying for rain--The Hottentots’ god, Gounja-Gounja--The Bushmen’s god--Zulu tradition of the origin of men--Good and bad spirits--The spirit i...

The Indians of North America--The Great Spirit--Worship of ancestors--Indian legends--The “Song of Hiawatha”--Indian allegory of winter and spring--Alaskans’ worship of evil spi...

The book of rewards and punishments--Some selections from the book of rewards and punishments--The book of secret blessings--The gods of the Taoists--The god of letters--Charms-...

The worship of Shang-te, at Peking--Temple of Confucius--Examinations in the sacred books--Anecdotes of students--How Mencius’s mother incited her son to study--How a tired stud...

The Sangha, or Buddhist Brotherhood--The initiation ceremony--Rules of the Order--Daily life of a monk--The three great Buddhist councils--Buddhaghosha, the famous monk and miss...

Sketch of the history of Lamaism--Monks and monasteries--Temple at Teshu Lumbo monastery--Services at the H’Lassa cathedral--Praying-wheels--The mystic sentence of Thibet--The i...

Pagodas--Chinese Buddhist temples--The worship of Kwan-yin--The worship of Kum-Fa--Idols--The Temple of Horrors--Monasteries--A Monk’s Monument--Chinese Buddhist Bonzes--Buddhis...

Bodhidharma in Japan--The Sun-child and his miraculous deliverance--Further history of Japan--Buddhist sects in Japan--The Protestants of Buddhism--Kwanon’s Temple at Asakusa, T...

Extent of Mohammedanism--The Arabian camel-driver who founded a great religion--The Prophet’s youth and early manhood--Gabriel’s message to Mohammed--The flight of Mohammed--Con...

Worship in the Mosques--The dancing and howling Dervishes--The smart and smarting answer of a Dervish--Daily worship--The Mosque of St. Sophia--The Jummah Musjid at Delhi, India...

I have laid it down as an invariable maxim constantly to follow historical tradition, and to hold fast by that clew, even when many things, in the testimony and declarations of...

The fair humanities of old religion, The power, the beauty and the majesty. They had their haunts in dales or piny mountain, Or forest by slow stream, or pebbly spring, Or chasm...

What appears to be of most importance is, the fact, attested by the hieroglyphic paintings of the Mexican, as well as by the tales now current in all quarters from the Arctic Oc...

In this chapter it is proposed to survey rapidly the progress of the whole heathen world in idolatrous worship from its first introduction. We have already seen how the world be...

I have come to Egypt to learn something of the wisdom of the Egyptians. Tell me, then, ye tombs, and temples, and pyramids, about God; tell me about the life to come! But the py...

At that time the heaven above was unnamed, In the earth beneath a name was unrecorded; Chaos, too, was unopened around them. By name the mother Tihamtu, [the Deep] was the beget...

For those the race of Israel oft forsook Their living strength, and unfrequented left His righteous altar, bowing lowly down To bestial gods; for which their heads as low Bowed...

There, where now, as we’re by sages told, Whirls on high a soulless fiery ball, Helios guided then his car of gold, In his silent majesty o’er all. Oreads then these heights aro...

“Within this grove, upon this wooded hill,” He said, “some deity his dwelling made; But who or what, none knows. The Arcadians Think they have seen great Jove himself, when oft...

To the Aryan of the West not merely the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon and stars, or the earth with its trees and springs, its fountains, or the sea with its storms and calms, b...

The Hindu mind still superstition sways Still to his Triune God the Brahmin prays; The laws of “caste” each generous hope restrain, And bind all mental powers with palsying chai...

A thousand pilgrims strain Arm, shoulder, breast and thigh, with might and main, To drag that sacred wain, And scarce can draw the enormous load, Prone fall the frantic votaries...

Not only in the writings of the later Stoicism, when already through the despairing twilight a luminous haze had been diffused, not only in the open plagiarisms of the Koran, sp...

As regards the beliefs of the ancient religion, Shintoism, it taught primarily the existence of gods, and in the division which it made of them into good and bad, recognized tha...

The characteristics of “Pure Shintô” are an absence of an ethical and doctrinal code, of idol-worship, of priestcraft, and of any teachings concerning a future state, and the de...

Yes, the great Buffalo[3] sleeps; his mightiest victory was his last. His warriors howl in vain, his necromancers gaze aghast. Fetich, nor magic wand, nor amulet of darnel, Can...

The religion of the American Indians and Alaskans partakes of the character of their national life; yet there are traces of the original ideas of God, the creation and early his...

I believe that the ignorance which has prevailed regarding the mythological systems of barbarous or semi-barbarous races has too generally led to their being considered far gran...

The Karens are a meek, peaceful race, simple and credulous, with many of the softer virtues and few flagrant vices. Though greatly addicted to drunkenness, extremely filthy and...

Modern Parsees decidedly object to being called fire-worshipers, and declare the designation untrue. They are undoubtedly taught from their youth up to turn their face to some l...

The teachings of Lao-Tsze are not unlike those of Zeno; both recommend retirement and contemplation as the most effectual means of purifying the spiritual part of our nature, an...

The Tao-te-king still remains the monument of Lao-tsze’s extraordinary power and penetration; and it gives ample reason for assigning him a place indefinitely higher than the ma...

One-third of the human race would probably join in honoring Confucius. The 340,000,000 of Chinese would, without doubt, accept the sentiment of the verse at the head of this cha...

Among the prominent objects of worship in China may be specified Shang-te, who is alone worshiped by the Emperor; the worship of Confucius; and that of the spirits of deceased a...

One of the most prominent features of the Chinese religion is the excessive reverence that is paid to parents. We remember the commandment of old, “Honor thy father and thy moth...

The Saviour of the World, Lord Buddha--Prince Siddartha styled on earth-- In Earth and Heavens and Hells Incomparable, All-honored, Wisest, Best, most Pitiful; The Teacher of Ni...

There is that in Buddhism, intelligible to the poor and the suffering, which has endeared Buddhism to the hearts of millions not the silly, metaphysical phantasmagorias of world...

What proud Emperors Carved his sweet words upon the rocks and caves; And how--in fullness of the times--it fell The Buddha died, the great Tathagato, Even as a man ’mongst men,...

In the time of Asoka, Buddhism had almost become the State religion of India. The conversion of the king, however, proved the beginning of its decline. It continued to exist unt...

On the pagoda spire, The bells are swinging, Their little golden circlet in a flutter, With tales the wooing winds have dared to utter, Till all are ringing, As if a choir Of go...

Siam is the land lying just to the east of Burmah; on account of the extreme reverence paid to the white elephant it is often called the Land of the White Elephant. It has a pop...

Ah! blessed Lord! Oh, High Deliverer! Forgive this feeble script, which doth thee wrong, Measuring with little wit thy lofty love. Ah! Lover! Brother! Guide! Lamp of the Law! I...

And yonder by Nankin, behold! The Tower of Porcelain, strange and old, Uplifting to the astonished skies Its nine-fold painted balconies, With balustrades of twining leaves, And...

Buddhism was introduced into Japan in 552 A.D. By this time, the original Buddhism of India had been very greatly altered. “It now had a vast and complicated ecclesiastical and...

Utter the song, O my soul! the flight and return of Mohammed, Prophet and priest, who scattered abroad both evil and blessing, Huge wasteful empires founded, and hallowed slow p...

One silver crescent in the twilight sky is hanging, Another tips the solemn dome of yonder mosque, And now the Muezzin’s call is heard, sonorous, clanging, Through thronged baza...

There is a cry in Burmah, and a rush Of thousand footsteps from the distant bound Of watery Siam and the rich Cathay. Not for food Or raiment ask they. Simply girding on The sca...