Myths and Poetic Fancy. 479 structible consciousness residing in human nature, certainly not the product of civilisation; for civilisation in the age of the Antoniues could not evolve any except a low type of morality. History proves that piety was not invented by savagery, is not established by civilisation; but of nobler place, and at war with the evil of both. Piety, or yearning for a better life and immortality, was not created by primitive poetic fancy, as may be proved by existing myths. Myths do not merely contain a rudimentary cosmic philosophy: an uncivilised race must possess considerable latent philosophy ere a rich mythology can be constructed. Arranging these myths in large assorted groups of ancient imaginative process, the originating thoughts may be traced in different lands-they appear with the regularity of mental law. The inner truth is always stronger and stranger than the fictitious surface; and these myths, as proving the wellmarked and consistent structure of the human mind in all ages, are the very best history. They reveal ancestral heirlooms of thought; the texture of ancient minds; and, while placing on record arts and manners, tell of philosophy and religion in times wholly lost from formal history. The child-like and poetical fancy of early men recognised every natural event as the pictured or representative operation of personal life and will. The Caucasian mind carved out shapes of Nature for itself; and, with hues well pleasing, designed silent faces of the Great and Wise-figures of the Immortal. It was Jove who stretched the rainbow down from heaven, a purple sign of war and tempest; or, sent it, as Iris, a messenger between gods and men. Analogics, which to us are mere fancies, were realities to the ancients. Orientals were not the sole possessors of power in imagery: the Deathgoddess, stern, livid, grim; with strong-barred house and nine worlds of departed souls; Hunger-her dish, Famine-her knife, Care-her bed, Misery-her curtain, was a powerful being to the old Norseman. Whatever was seen gave birth to fancies; and fully to understand old-world myths needs not evidence nor argument, but deep poetic feeling-the faculty of transporting our spirit into the atmosphere and romance of former life. The thoughtful man traces in these myths a consciousness and picture-history of the work of God. Sometimes crude, narrow, repulsive; yet, modern poets' fictions, however delicately shaped, want that reality of power wherewith archaic forms acted with an immense effect on life and faith which the world has not even yet outgrown. Even if every myth were nought but wild lawlessness of imagination, having no pattern whether in heaven or earth, what a wonderful land of genius did those early men win and occupy! These births from the imagination of the poet, the tale-teller, the seer, disclose so rich a fancy, such creative power and mystic mazes of thought, that modern inventive poetic powers are put to the blush. Milton's Sin and Death sitting within the gates of hell, and their bridge across the deep abyss to earth, powerfully done, are true antiques. The modern fictions of artistic beauty and highly wrought fancies, with which civilised man delights himself, possess not the reality nor freshness of the phantasms which brightened ancient imagination and deepened devotion. We have lost the key of mythiccypher; but could we translate the complex shifting terms into reality, and read off the meaning in worship, love, adventure, war; their life and beauty would go far to prove that the masterpieces of imagination belong rather to the past than to the present. Unconsciously often, and despite themselves, the shapers of poetic myth and legend in their lives of gods, goddesses, and superhuman heroes, displayed the structure and operation of their own minds, the philosophy and religion of their own times, as if the earliest and highest fountain of thought issued from consciousness of Deity. Amongst lowest races the gods of legend and worship are of mixed personality. Man is the type of deity, human society and government are models of Divine society. There are chiefs and kings among men, and on high great gods among little gods, the difference being rather of rank than of nature. In after-times, culture does not invent, but develops amongst Aryan nations, and descends to lowest form in Ancient Truth-One God. 481 Fetishism. Sir William Jones writes-"We must not be surprised at finding, on a close examination, that the characters of all the Pagan deities, male and female, melt into each other, and at last into one or two; for it seems a well-founded opinion that the crowds of gods and goddesses in ancient Rome, and modern Váránes (Benares), mean only the powers of Nature, and principally those of the sun, expressed in a variety of ways and by a multitude of fanciful names." 1 The statement of Sir William Jones evidences that theology, even amongst rude races, rested not on the error-that there are many gods; but on the truth-there is one God, the Divine ancestor of men, Shaper, Animator, Ruler, Spirit, holding up heaven, shining in the sun, smiting with the thunder. Nature was the high priestess, not goddess; but a symbol of Him, the Giver of Wisdom; of Him who is Good as True. It is clear that a conviction of the Being of one God, is not an evolution from highly cultured world-consciousness acting on appropriate facts, but a primitive faith. This is further shown by the fact that some highly cultured races have low doctrines and rites; while others, not so intellectually gifted, form exalted conceptions of the Supreme. There is also among existing genuine savage faiths not only a rudimentary form of idea as to the deep problem of good and evil, but an effort to solve the mystery by realisation of the good and by victory over evil. The good, the valiant, all who excel, are heroes, divine men; symbols, though not understood, of Him who became Incarnate. DOCTRINE Of Souls. There are two beliefs: 1. Every creature has a soul capable of continued existence; therefore, the dead chief's horse is slain at the tomb for use of the human spirit. 2. There are souls and spirits ranging from low degree to the high rank of powerful deities. I. "The theory of the soul is one principal part of a system of religious philosophy, which unites in an unbroken line of mental connection, the savage Fetish-worshipper and the 1 The First Anniversary Discourse before the Asiatic Society of Bengal. civilised Christian." This unbroken line of mental connection, this universal and imperishable conviction, is found in the soul-depths of every human creature; and reminds us, though sometimes in rudest quaintest symbols, of a Spiritual Kingdom. In lowest levels of culture the notion of a ghost-soul occasionally inhabiting the dead body, and in vision and dream appearing out of the body, is deeply ingrained. This faith inevitably leads to acts of reverence and propitiation. Part of the old culture of souls and spirits survives in modern spiritualism. It is believed that phantasms are ghosts; that, being disembodied, they can enter the sleeper's mind and excite perception apart from any external or objective figure. As to persons awake, spirits are said to be visible to some, to others invisible, according to the will of the spirits. It is also taken for granted, both in rudest and most advanced culture, that spirits recognise one another by a likeness of the body retained in the disembodied state. Man's spirit, after death, lives in complete and abiding human shape: "Eternal form shall still divide The eternal soul from all beside; In Memoriam. 2. In Zulu theology, not only do souls exist after the death of the body, but are spirits and deities worshipped by the living. In modern thought, the soul furnishes a more intellectual side to the religious doctrine of the future life; but, in all faiths, however unintellectual, it is an essential. The most formal denial of future life, found amongst an uncultured race, is in a poem of the Dinka tribe concerning Dendrid the Creator: "He made man : And man comes forth, goes down into the ground, and comes no more." There is, nevertheless, even in this tribe, testimony to belief in another life. Indeed, the continued existence of the soul, Regions of the Dead. 483 after the death of the body, may be counted part of the universal faith. Two forms of doctrine are found : 1. The Transmigration of souls, which, ascending from lower stages, has established itself amongst the huge communities of Asia. 2. The separate personal Existence of the Soul, found not only amongst rude and primitive men, but in the heart of Christianity—where it is at once an inducement to goodness, a sustainer of hope, and a solution to the problem presented by the mixed state of our present life. The savage mind is generally incapable of a large and clear view of immortality; all dull and careless natures are wont to regard the world to come as far off; but conviction of its reality finds expression in every definition of faith. Sometimes continuance of life is the main fact, sometimes retribution is the chief feature. Four great regions are assigned to the dead: hell, earth, hades, heaven, and the conception of them does not sink into dreaminess, but is characterised rather by ghostliness. The low creeds have little moral element in connection with the state and place of the departed. It was reserved for our Christian Faith to implant righteousness and holiness, to give the inspiration of duty and love, and to constitute them chief verities in the Kingdom of God. FUTURE RETRIBUTION. The idea of future retribution and different grades of condition is not universal: some savage races are in an intermediate condition between the continuance theory and the retribution theory. This confirms the New Testament statement that the revelation of a pure and glorious immortality is by Jesus Christ. All races have idea of the soul outliving the body in a country of ghosts; and all carnal men, whether of low or high culture, count a corner in this world the better place. In all faiths, except the Christian Faith, whether the spirit dwells with the body in the grave, or is secluded in a subterranean void, or abides in the dark classic realm of hades, or occupies |