PREFACE. THE HE subject described and illustrated in the following pages, though springing from a common source, has naturally many branches, and assumes a number of somewhat complicated forms; in order, however, to keep the volume within its intended limits, care has been taken not to digress from the main topic, or stray in any way from the matter indicated by the title. It may perhaps occur to a casual observer, that Phallism is a topic wanting in sufficient interest to make it worthy of any amount of consideration or study, it is hoped that the extraordinary facts here narrated, the extensive and tenacious hold this worship had and still has upon multitudes in various parts of the world, and the mysterious objects supposed to be connected with it, meeting us in all directions, will speedily dissipate such an idea. A subject which reaches from the earliest dawn of history through long and eventful ages, down to the most modern times, and touches almost every kingdom of the past and present, in the four quarters of the earth, and which is so closely interwoven with the moral, social, and religious life of the vast British dominions in the East, must have an interest peculiarly its own. Still further, the discovery of the sites of ancient kingdoms, and the unearthing of long buried statues, monuments, and mystifying inscriptions, has suggested and provoked new lines of study amongst symbolical remains, and the key to so much that for long was unreadable, has been found in the singular revelations of this peculiar worship. It is not pretended that such a treatise is of a nature which would render it suitable for the inspection of all ages and classes, there are numberless things constantly occurring about us which are wisely concealed from the young and inexperienced, but which it is necessary men of mature judgments should be acquainted with, but it will for the most part, be found after all, not so necessarily indelicate as some suppose, if properly viewed in connection with its own times and circumstances. That licentiousness and grossness have been intimately associated with it at certain times and in certain places, is undeniable, but there are facts in history which the faithful chronicler is bound to exhibit and narrate as far as possible in a manner consistent with the more refined and polished manners of the age. In such style we have endeavoured to tell our story and in commending its strange revelations to our readers, we can only remind them of the old and familiar motto, "Evil be to him that evil thinks." |