Part 17

In 1563 the first newspaper was produced in Venice, which again set the ball of intellect rolling along, never more to be stopped by priest or prince. The new Copernican philosophy was now accepted by many learned men, among whom even were some of the priesthood. Giordano Bruno, an Italian Dominican monk, among others, embraced these truths, and was not afraid to openly teach them, for which daring act he was soon obliged to seek refuge in Switzerland, where he prosecuted his studies for some time in peace. The fiends of the Inquisition, however, soon discovered his whereabouts and drove him into France, then into England, and then back to Germany; in the end arresting him at Venice. He was taken thence to Rome, publicly accused of teaching the plurality of worlds, and burnt at the stake by the Inquisition in 1600. Eighteen years after the murder of this noble Italian, Kepler, of Würtemberg, published his “Epitome of the Copernican System,” in which he demonstrated for the first time that all the heavenly bodies are bound in their courses by various laws. This work, like those of Copernicus and Bruno, was prohibited by the Congregation of the Index Purgatorius, and Kepler himself declared a dangerous infidel. Still, in spite of the fury of the priesthood, Catholic and Reformer alike, the study of the sciences made rapid strides, and in 1632 the venerable Galileo published his “System of the World,” in which he maintained the accuracy of the Copernican theory. For this daring disregard of the Church’s warnings he was summoned to Rome and brought before the Inquisition, accused of having taught that the earth moves round the sun. The poor old man was compelled to kneel on the floor of the court, place his hand on the Bible, and recant, after which he was incarcerated in the prison of the Inquisition, where, ten years afterwards, he died. Still science progressed, and was considerably aided by the rapid increase in the number of newspapers throughout Europe. In 1631 the _French Gazette_ was established, and, soon after, newspapers appeared in all important cities, much to the discomfiture of the Church, whose power was now more seriously imperilled than ever. Confidence was gradually becoming established, and Descartes dared, in 1680, to make an attempt to analyse the mind, declaring that the necessity of universal doubt was the only starting-point of all true philosophy. He was followed, six years later, by Newton, who published his “Principia,” in which he demonstrated the grand truth which has immortalised his name—viz., that all bodies attract each other with forces jointly proportionate to their masses, varying universally as the squares of their distances. Thus was established the great law of universal gravitation, which marks an epoch in the intellectual development of man. Owing to the constantly-recurring feuds between the Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics, this great discovery passed for a while almost unnoticed; but it soon became apparent that the final blow had been given to the old theory of divine intervention in the movements of the universe, and that learned men of all countries were rapidly embracing the Newtonian theory of irreversible laws.

It was, however, now too late for the Church to interfere, for all classes were quickly becoming impressed with the grand theory of gravitation, which was destined for ever to remain the most wonderful discovery of man; and, although the clergy still continued to anathematise all scholars and scientists, the study of nature was pursued with rapidly-increasing enthusiasm, as though to make up for lost time. In 1690 Locke, the physician and philosopher, published his “Essay on the Human Understanding,” in which he declared all human knowledge to be the result of experience, thus entirely upsetting the old theory of intuition. Twenty years later Leibnitz published his work entitled “Theodicée,” in which he endeavoured to solve the difficult problem of existence of evil in the world under the moral government of Deity. These two rival philosophers soon became the leaders of philosophic thought in their respective countries; but barely thirty years had passed away before an iconoclast appeared, in the person of David Hume, who cut away the ground ruthlessly from beneath their feet. His “Treatise on Human Nature,” published in 1739, upset all the philosophical systems of the past, replacing them by the great theory of causation, which was soon accepted by every philosopher and scientist. Kant followed in 1781 with his “Critique of Pure Reason,” in which he submitted matter to analysis, and declared it to be possessed of inherent force.

The other sciences were also joining in the march of progress. Chemistry was fast becoming a settled science; Priestley’s discovery of oxygen, in 1774, had created a great sensation; Cavendish shortly afterwards, in 1783, discovered the constitution of water; and Lavoisier, in 1789, summarised the combined researches of these two chemists and himself in his “Elements of Chemistry,” which at once was recognised as the standard work on the subject. Astronomy had, since Newton’s discovery of gravitation, assumed a more settled condition, but was destined to further modification by the enunciation of the nebular hypothesis by Laplace, who commenced to publish his bulky work, “ Mecanique Celeste,” in 1799.

The nineteenth century opened with progress, as it were, on the gallop. In 1804 the first locomotive engine was started in England, at the same time that the first screw steamer was run at New York. It is needless to enumerate all the inventions of scientific men during the century, which are so well known to every one. Suffice it to say that, in a marvellously short space of time, the whole face of Europe has been changed. Railways cross each other at all points, like a huge network; telegraph wires link together as one place all important centres of population; public buildings are protected from nature’s freaks by lightning conductors; lighthouses dot the whole length of our coasts; the penny postage conveys our thoughts to and fro throughout the length and breadth of the land; a free press ventilates our grievances and enlightens our minds; hospitals and dispensaries minister to the sick and maimed wherever we go; and the Habeas Corpus Act endows each well-disposed individual with freedom and liberty. What a metamorphosis to be effected in so short a time!

The lesson we learn from such a cursory glance as this necessarily is at the intellectual progress of Europe during the last two thousand years is full of the deepest meaning. We cannot help being struck by the dogged manner in which the Christian religion has opposed all progress, ruthlessly murdering in cold blood any who dared to suggest that the now-established and universally-accepted theories might possibly possess some little of the truth. Every new scientific truth or discovery has been denounced by the Church, every great benefactor to the human race persecuted and hunted to death by the sleuth-hounds of bigotry and intolerance, and every European war or massacre hatched out of religious differences. To this very day the Church, though robbed of all its old power to inflict evil and misery, persists in its denunciation of all scientific discoveries; and not one of the numerous sects which at present divide the Christian Church is exempt from this charge. Hegel, Bunsen, John Stuart Mill, Rénan, Huxley, Darwin, Tyndall, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Carpenter, Herbert Spencer, Emerson, Haeckel, Schopenhauer, Victor Hugo, and, in short, all the leaders of thought of our century, have incurred the bitter hostility of the various Christian sects; and yet what a heirloom the works of these men form for the coming generation!

The discovery of the power of chloroform and ether to relieve pain was denounced by the Church because it was proposed to apply it to the relief of the agony of childbirth, the natural inheritance of woman under the divine curse of Eden; the abolition of slavery was also opposed by these human parasites because the practice was ordered in the Bible; and it is well known how the priests of the Church utilised for their own purposes those abominable texts of the Old Testament, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” and “Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his own cause.”

The Middle Ages bear attestation to the fidelity of the priesthood to their sacred oracles. Have not two honest citizens of London quite lately undergone one whole year’s imprisonment for the grave sin of ridiculing the notion of the Hebrew and Christian gods being other than creations of man’s imagination? This very lecture will probably be the means of bringing down the wrath of the priesthood—State Church and Nonconformist alike—upon its author. And why? Are the facts untrue? Just the reverse. The writer, historian, or pseudo-scientist who writes volumes of falsehoods for the purpose of propping up for a short time longer priestcraft and tyranny will assuredly fare well at the hands of these insinuating gentlemen of the cloth; but let the man who dares to write the honest, unvarnished truth beware! His fair name, his business, and his social and family ties will be undermined and destroyed in an incredibly short space of time. All honor, therefore, be given to those brave ones who have dared to stand before the world and speak out the truth in the cause of humanity! They have done their share in helping forward the march of intellect, in stifling superstition, and in uprooting ignorance. The state of Europe to-day, as compared with its condition two thousand years since, is overwhelming evidence of the continual progress of civilization, which, in spite of the opposition from its old enemy, the Church, in the past and, to a limited extent, in the present, has proved to the world that it must, of necessity, continue for all time as one of the great and immutable laws of Nature.

GENESIS I. 1, according to authorised Hebrew version, with final letters, but without vowel points and breathings.

בראשיתבראאלהיםאתהשמיםואתהארץ

“In the beginning the ram (or lamb)-sun-gods (or the good gods) renovated (reorganized or re-started) the heavens and the earth.”

This refers to the commencement of the Persian new-year, at the vernal equinox, _Aries_, the ram or lamb.

GENESIS I. 1, according to the Samaritan Pentateuch, transcribed into ante-Masoretic, or original Hebrew, as written before the invention of the five final letters.

בראשיתבראהעזאתהשמימואתהארצ

“In the beginning the goat renovated the heavens and the earth.”

This refers to the commencement of the Egyptian new-year, at the winter solstice, _Capricornus_, the goat.

THE BIBLE.

There is probably no book on earth that has ever had anything like so large a circulation as that which is known as the Bible; and yet few among the many millions who possess a copy ever think of asking themselves the question, “Where and how did it originate?” They are satisfied with the _ipse dixit_ of their parson that it “came from God.” That may be sufficient to satisfy the unthinking multitude, but it does not suffice for thinking people, who prefer to follow the dictates of their reason rather than rest on the mere word of a man or a number of men who are paid to preach that the Bible is the word of God, and whose incomes would cease if their followers thought otherwise.

What is this Bible? Where did it come from? Let us see. As we now have it, it consists of a number of books, which are divided into two main portions, the Old and the New Testaments, the former being made up of the five books said to have been written by Moses under God’s inspiration, and called the Pentateuch, and a number of historical, poetical, and prophetic writings; and the latter consisting of four narratives of the life of Jesus, called the Gospels, a narrative of the Acts of the Apostles, a number of letters, and the Vision or Revelation of one John. The number of books which make up the Bible has varied from time to time, according to the fancy of the age; but about 360 years since a Council of Protestants determined that a number of hitherto received sacred writings were not the “Word of God,” and finally decided that only those now included in the authorised version were of divine origin. Before that time the following books had formed part of the Bible—viz., Tobit and Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Epistle of Jeremiah, Song of the Three Children, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, and Maccabees, all of which are considered canonical at the present time by the Roman Catholic Church. Besides these writings there are a large number of others that have, at different times, occupied positions of honour in this ever-varying compilation, but which are now almost forgotten by pious divines, and entirely unknown by their credulous and ignorant dupes.

Dr. Dupin, Professor of Philosophy at the Paris University, and one of the most pious and learned Christian writers of his time, gives a list of over 150 books that have, from time to time, been held sacred, and said to have formed part of the “Word of God,” as follows:—

OLD TESTAMENT.

_Books now Considered Canonical by Jews and Christians._

The five Books of Moses. The Book of Joshua. The Book of Judges. The Book of Samuel, or the first and second Books of Kings. The third and fourth Books of Kings. Isaiah. Jeremiah. Ezekiel. The Twelve Minor Prophets. The Book of Job. The Hundred and Fifty Psalms. The Proverbs of Solomon. The Ecclesiastes. The Canticles. Daniel. The Chronicles. Esdras, divided into two Books.

_Books Received as Canonical by some Jews and Rejected by Others._

Esther, Ruth.

_Books Excluded from the Jewish Canon, and Reckoned as Apocryphal by some of the Ancient Christians, but Allowed as Canonical of late by the Church of Rome._

Baruch, Tobit, Judith, the Book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, the two Books of the Maccabees. The Song of the three Children in the Fiery Furnace. The History of Susanna. The History of Bel and the Dragon.

_Books that are Excluded from the Canon without Apparent Reason._

The Prayer of Manasseh, inserted in the Apocrypha. The third and fourth Books of Esdras (ibid). The third and fourth Books of Maccabees, in the Septuagint Bible. The Genealogy of Job, and his Wife’s Speech, at the end of the Greek text of the Book of Job. The 151st Psalm, at the end of the Greek Psalms. A Discourse of King Solomon, at the end of the Book of Wisdom. The Preface before the Lamentations of Jeremiah, in the vulgar Latin and Greek text.

_Other Apocryphal Books of the same Nature, which are Lost._

The Book of Enoch. The Book of the Assumption of Moses. The Assumption, Apocalypse, or Secrets of Elias. The Secrets of Jeremiah.

_Books Full of Fables and Errors, which are Lost._

The Generation, or the Creation of Adam. The Revelation of Adam. Of the Genealogy, or of the sons and daughters of Adam. Cham’s Book of Magic. A Treatise, entitled Seth. The Assumption of Abraham. Jetsira, or concerning the Creation ascribed to Abraham. The Book of the Twelve Patriarchs. The Discourses of Jacob and Joseph. The Prophecy of Habakkuk. A Collection of the Prophecies of Ezekiel. The Prophecy of Eldad and Medad. The Treatise of Jannes and Jambres. The Book of King Og. Jacob’s Ladder, and several other Tracts.

NEW TESTAMENT.

_Books Owned as Canonical at all times and by all Christians._

The Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Acts of the Apostles. Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul. The First Epistle of St. Peter. The First Epistle of St. John.

_Books Questioned, but afterwards Admitted by the Church as Canonical._

The Epistle to the Hebrews. The Epistle of St. James. The Second Epistle of St. Peter. The Second and Third of St. John. The Epistle of St. Jude. The Apocalypse, or Revelations of St. John, which was a long time before it was admitted as Canonical. The history of the angel and the agony of our Saviour related (Luke xxii.). The end of the last chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel. The history of the woman taken in adultery, related in the eighth chapter of St. John’s Gospel. The end of St. John’s Gospel. The passage concerning the Trinity, taken out of the fifth chapter of the First Epistle of St. John.

_Apocryphal Writings which are not Full of Errors._

The letter of Jesus Christ to Abgarus. The letter of the Blessed Virgin. The Gospel according to the Egyptians. The Gospel according to the Hebrews. Additions to the Gospel of St. Matthew and St. Luke, in the Cambridge Manuscript. The Proto-Evangelicum of St. James. The Gospel of Nicodemus. The Ancient Acts of Paul and Thecla. The Epistle of the Laodicæans. The Epistle of St. Paul to Seneca. The Epistle of St. Barnabas. The Liturgies of St. Peter. The Liturgies of St. Mark. The Liturgies of St. James. The Liturgies of St. Matthew. The Canons and Constitutions of the Apostles. The Treatise of Prochorus. The Books of St. Linus. The Treatise of Abdias. The Acts of the Passion of St. Andrew.

_Books Full of Errors; almost all of them Lost._

The Gospel of St. Peter. The Gospel of St. Thomas. The Gospel of St. Matthias. The Gospel of St. Bartholomew. The Gospel of St. Philip. The Gospel of Judas Iscariot. The Gospel of Thaddæus. The Gospel of Barnabas. The Gospel of Truth by the Valentinians. The Gospel of Perfection by the Gnostics. The Gospel of Eve by the Gnostics. A Book concerning the Infancy of Jesus Christ. A Treatise concerning the Birth of our Saviour, the Virgin Mary, and her Midwife. A Treatise concerning the Virgin’s Lying-in, and the questions she asked. A Treatise of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, cited by St. Jerome. The Apocryphal Treatise of the Life of the Virgin, cited by St. Gregory Nysene. Another Apocryphal Book on the Virgin, cited by Faustus. The Writings of Jesus Christ about Miracles. The Acts of St. Peter. The Acts of St. Paul. The Acts of St. Andrew. The Acts of St. John. The Acts of the Apostles. The Acts of St. Philip. The Acts of St. Thomas. The Doctrine, Preaching, and Itinerary of St. Peter. The Rapture of St. Paul. The Memoirs of the Apostles. The Lots of the Apostles. The Itinerary of the Apostles. The Treatise concerning the Priesthood of Jesus Christ. The Apostolical Tract. The Treatise of the Death and Assumption of the Virgin. The Apocalypses or Revelations of St. Peter. The Revelations of St. Paul. The Revelations of St. Thomas. The Revelations of St. Stephen. The Revelations of the Great Apostle. The Revelations of Abraham. The Revelations of Seth. The Revelations of Noriah.

In addition to those already named there were a number of lost books referred to and quoted from by the authors of the various canonical books, such as:—

The Book of the Wars of the Lord (Numbers xxi. 14). The Book of the Covenant (Exodus xxiv. 7). The Book of Jasher, or the Upright (Joshua x. 13, 2 Samuel i. 18). The Book of the Acts of Solomon (1 Kings xi. 41). The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel (1 Kings xiv. 19, and eighteen other places in the Books of Kings; also 2 Chron. xx. 34 and xxxiii. 18). The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah (1 Kings xiv. 29, and twelve other places in the Books of Kings). The Book of Samuel the Seer (1 Chronicles xxix. 29). The Book of Nathan the Prophet (1 Chronicles xxix. 29). The Book of Gad the Seer (1 Chronicles xxix. 29). The Chronicles of King David (1 Chronicles xxvii. 24). The Book of Nathan the Prophet (2 Chronicles ix. 29). The Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilomite (2 Chronicles ix. 29). The Visions of Iddo the Seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat (2 Chron. ix. 29). The Book of Shemaiah the Prophet (2 Chronicles xii. 15). The Book of Iddo the Seer concerning Genealogies (2 Chronicles xii. 15). The Story of the Prophet Iddo (2 Chronicles xiii. 22). The Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel (2 Chronicles xvi. 11, and six other places in the same Book). The Book of Jehu (2 Chronicles xx. 34). The Memoirs of Hircanus (mentioned in 1 Maccabees). The Books of Jason (mentioned in 2 Maccabees ii.). The Acts of Uriah (mentioned in 2 Chronicles xxvi. 22). Three thousand Proverbs of Solomon (mentioned in 1 Kings iv. 32). A thousand and five Songs (mentioned in ibid). Several other volumes by the same author (mentioned in ibid). The Prophecy of Jeremiah, torn in pieces by Jehoiakim (cited in Jeremiah xxxvi.). Another Prophecy of his upon the city of Babylon (mentioned in Jeremiah li.). Memoirs or descriptions of the same author (mentioned in 1 Maccabees ii.). The Prophecy of Jonah (mentioned in the Book of Jonah).

We can readily imagine what trouble our pious ancestors must have experienced in deciding which of these writings really emanated from the ghost of God and which were fraudulent productions, for the style in which most of them were written rendered it almost impossible to decipher them: written on rough skins, in ink which had become obliterated by age, many of them had fallen into the hands of monks and other rogues, who appeared to have suffered severely from _cacoëthes scribendi_, and who recorded events connected with their own persons or surroundings over the original writing, like a lady “crosses” her letters, so that the whole manuscript became a complete jumble. In most cases the original or ground language was Hebrew or Greek in ill-formed and continuous capitals, undivided into words, and without accents, points, or breathings, while the “crossing” was in Arabic, Latin, or some other different dialect, badly written and accompanied with ink spots and senseless dashes. Out of this heterogeneous mass of scribblings the pious divines of the Reformation period compiled our authorised version of the Bible, the translation into English being made, in the case of the Old Testament, from the modern Hebrew text, and in that of the New Testament from Beza’s fifth edition of the Greek text.