[1] These figures are copied from the “Religious Statistics of the United States for the year 1871.”

[2] These are: The Baptists, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Northern Methodists, Southern Methodists, Methodists various, Northern Presbyterians, Southern Presbyterians, United Presbyterians, United Brethren, Brethren in Christ, Reformed Dutch, Reformed German, Reformed Presbyterians, Cumberland Presbyterians.

[3] H. Maudsley: “Body and Mind.”

[4] “Boston Sunday Herald,” November 5, 1876.

[5] See the self-glorification of the present Pope in the work entitled, “Speeches of Pope Pius IX.” by Don Pascale de Franciscis; and the famous pamphlet of that name by the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone. The latter quotes from the work named the following sentence pronounced by the Pope: “My wish is that all governments should know that I am speaking in this strain.... And I have the right to speak, even more than Nathan the prophet to David the king, and a great deal more than St. Ambrose had to Theodosius!!”

[6] See King’s “Gnostics,” and other works.

[7] Des Mousseaux: “La Magie au XIXme Siècle,” chap. i.

[8] Hargrave Jennings: “The Rosicrucians,” pp. 228-241.

[9] Des Mousseaux: “Hauts Phénomenes de la Magie.”

[10] Don Pasquale di Franciscis: “Discorsi del Sommo Pontefice Pio IX.,” Part i., p. 340.

[11] “Speeches of Pius IX.,” p. 14. Am. Edition.

[12] Vide “Speeches of Pope Pius IX.,” by Don Pasq. di Franciscis; Gladstone’s pamphlet on this book; Draper’s “Conflict between Religion and Science,” and others.

[13] The fact is given to us by an eye-witness who has visited the church several times; a Roman Catholic, who felt perfectly horrified, as he expressed it.

[14] Referring to the seed planted by Jesus and his Apostles.

[15] “Chips,” vol. i., p. 26, Preface.

[16] Mallet: “Northern Antiquities.”

[17] Ether is both pure and impure fire. The composition of the latter comprises all its visible forms, such as the “correlation of forces”—heat, flame, electricity, etc. The former is the Spirit of Fire. The difference is purely alchemical.

[18] See “Inquiry into the Nature and Place of Hell,” by Rev. T. Surnden.

[19] Revelation xvi. 8-9.

[20] Aristotle mentions Pythagoreans who placed the sphere of fire in the sun, and named it Jupiter’s Prison. See “De Cœlo,” lib. ii.

[21] “De Civit. Dei,” 1, xxi., c. 17.

[22] “Demonologia and Hell,” p. 289.

[23] “Les Hauts Phénomènes de la Magie,” p. v., Preface.

[24] Dr. Stanley: “Lectures on the Eastern Church,” p. 407.

[25] In the government of Tambov, a gentleman, a rich landed proprietor, had a curious case happen in his family during the Hungarian campaign of 1848. His only and much-beloved nephew, whom, having no children, he had adopted as a son, was in the Russian army. The elderly couple had a portrait of his—a water-color painting—constantly, during the meals, placed on the table in front of the young man’s usual seat. One evening as the family, with some friends, were at their early tea, the glass over the portrait, without any one touching it, was shattered to atoms with a loud explosion. As the aunt of the young soldier caught the picture in her hand she saw the forehead and head besmeared with blood. The guests, in order to quiet her, attributed the blood to her having cut her fingers with the broken glass. But, examine as they would, they could not find the vestige of a cut on her fingers, and no one had touched the picture but herself. Alarmed at her state of excitement the husband, pretending to examine the portrait more closely, cut his finger on purpose, and then tried to assure her that it was his blood and that, in the first excitement, he had touched the frame without any one remarking it. All was in vain, the old lady felt sure that Dimitry was killed. She began to have masses said for him daily at the village church, and arrayed the whole household in deep mourning. Several weeks later, an official communication was received from the colonel of the regiment, stating that their nephew was killed by a fragment of a shell which had carried off the upper part of his head.

[26] Executions for witchcraft took place, not much later than a century ago, in other of the American provinces. Notoriously there were negroes executed in New Jersey by burning at the stake—the penalty denounced in several States. Even in South Carolina, in 1865, when the State government was “reconstructed,” after the civil war, the statutes inflicting death for witchcraft were found to be still unrepealed. It is not a hundred years since they have been enforced to the murderous letter of their text.

[27] Vide the title-page on the English translation of Mayerhoff’s “Reuchlin und Seine Zeit,” Berlin, 1830. “The Life and Times of John Reuchlin, or Capnion, the Father of the German Reformation,” by F. Barham, London, 1843.

[28] Lord Coke: 3 “Institutes,” fol. 44.

[29] Vide “The Life of St. Gregory of Tours.”

[30] Translated from the original document in the Archives of Orleans, France; also see “Sortes and Sortilegium;” “Life of Peter de Blois.”

[31] “Miracles and Modern Spiritualism.”

[32] There were two chairs of the titular apostle at Rome. The clergy, frightened at the uninterrupted evidence furnished by scientific research, at last decided to confront the enemy, and we find the “Chronique des Arts” giving the cleverest, and at the same time most Jesuitical, explanation of the fact. According to their story, “The increase in the number of the faithful decided Peter upon making Rome henceforth the centre of his action. The cemetery of Ostrianum was too distant and would not suffice for the reünions of the Christians. The motive which had induced the Apostle to confer on Linus and Cletus successively the episcopal character, in order to render them capable of sharing the solicitudes of a church whose extent was to be without limits, led naturally to a multiplication of the places of meeting. The particular residence of Peter was therefore fixed at Viminal; and there was established that mysterious Chair, the symbol of power and truth. The august seat which was venerated at the Ostrian Catacombs was not, however, removed. Peter still visited this cradle of the Roman Church, and often, without doubt, exercised his holy functions there. A second Chair, expressing the same mystery as the first, was set up at Cornelia, and it is this which has come down to us through the ages.”

Now, so far from it being possible that there ever were two genuine chairs of this kind, the majority of critics show that Peter never was at Rome at all; the reasons are many and unanswerable. Perhaps we had best begin by pointing to the works of Justin Martyr. This great champion of Christianity, writing in the early part of the second century in Rome, where he fixed his abode, eager to get hold of the least proof in favor of the truth for which he suffered, seems perfectly unconscious of St. Peter’s existence!!

Neither does any other writer of any consequence mention him in connection with the Church of Rome, earlier than the days of Irenæus, when the latter set himself to invent a new religion, drawn from the depths of his imagination. We refer the reader anxious to learn more to the able work of Mr. George Reber, entitled “The Christ of Paul.” The arguments of this author are conclusive. The above article in the “Chronique des Arts,” speaks of the increase of the faithful to such an extent that Ostrianum could not contain the number of Christians. Now, if Peter was at Rome at all—runs Mr. Reber’s argument—it must have been between the years A. D. 64 and 69; for at 64 he was at Babylon, from whence he wrote epistles and letters to Rome, and at some time between 64 and 68 (the reign of Nero) he either died a martyr or in his bed, for Irenæus makes him deliver the Church of Rome, together with Paul (!?) (whom he persecuted and quarrelled with all his life), into the hands of Linus, who became bishop in 69 (see Reber’s “Christ of Paul,” p. 122). We will treat of it more fully in chapter iii.

Now, we ask, in the name of common sense, how could the faithful of Peter’s Church increase at such a rate, when Nero trapped and killed them like so many mice during his reign? History shows the few Christians fleeing from Rome, wherever they could, to avoid the persecution of the emperor, and the “Chronique des Arts” makes them increase and multiply! “Christ,” the article goes on to say, “willed that this visible sign of the doctrinal authority of his vicar should also have its portion of immortality; one can follow it from age to age in the documents of the Roman Church.” Tertullian formally attests its existence in his book “De Præscriptionibus.” Eager to learn everything concerning so interesting a subject, we would like to be shown when did Christ WILL anything of the kind? However: “Ornaments of ivory have been fitted to the front and back of the chair, but only on those parts repaired with acacia-wood. Those which cover the panel in front are divided into three superimposed rows, each containing six plaques of ivory, on which are engraved various subjects, among others the ‘Labors of Hercules.’ Several of the plaques were wrongly placed, and seemed to have been affixed to the chair at a time when the remains of antiquity were employed as ornaments, without much regard to fitness.” This is the point. The article was written simply as a clever answer to several facts published during the present century. Bower, in his “History of the Popes” (vol. ii., p. 7), narrates that in the year 1662, while cleaning one of the chairs, “the ‘Twelve Labors of Hercules’ unluckily appeared engraved upon it,” after which the chair was removed and another substituted. But in 1795, when Bonaparte’s troops occupied Rome, the chair was again examined. This time there was found the Mahometan confession of faith, in Arabic letters: “There is no Deity but Allah, and Mahomet is his Apostle.” (See appendix to “Ancient Symbol-Worship,” by H. M. Westropp and C. Staniland Wake.) In the appendix Prof. Alexander Wilder very justly remarks as follows: “We presume that the Apostle of the Circumcision, as Paul, his great rival, styles him, was never at the Imperial City, nor had a successor there, not even in the ghetto. The ‘Chair of Peter,’ therefore, is sacred rather than apostolical. Its sanctity proceeded, however, from the esoteric religion of the former times of Rome. The hierophant of the Mysteries probably occupied it on the day of initiations, when exhibiting to the candidates the Petroma (stone tablet containing the last revelation made by the hierophant to the neophyte for initiation).”

[33] Joshua xxiv. 15.

[34] One of the most surprising facts that have come under our observation, is that students of profound research should not couple the frequent recurrence of these “unexpected and almost miraculous” discoveries of important documents, at the most opportune moments, with a premeditated design. Is it so strange that the custodians of “Pagan” lore, seeing that the proper moment had arrived, should cause the needed document, book, or relic to fall as if by accident in the right man’s way? Geological surveyors and explorers even as competent as Humboldt and Tschuddi, have not discovered the hidden mines from which the Peruvian Incas dug their treasure, although the latter confesses that the present degenerate Indians have the secret. In 1839, Perring, the archæologist, proposed to the sheik of an Arab village two purses of gold, if he helped him to discover the entrance to the hidden passage leading to the sepulchral chambers in the North Pyramid of Doshoor. But though his men were out of employment and half-starved, the sheik proudly refused to “sell the secret of the dead,” promising to show it gratis, when the time would come for it. Is it, then, impossible that in some other regions of the earth are guarded the remains of that glorious literature of the past, which was the fruit of its majestic civilization? What is there so surprising in the idea? Who knows but that as the Christian Church has unconsciously begotten free thought by reaction against her own cruelty, rapacity, and dogmatism, the public mind may be glad to follow the lead of the Orientalists, away from Jerusalem and towards Ellora; and that then much more will be discovered that is now hidden?

[35] “Chips from a German Workshop,” vol. i., p. 373; Semitic Monotheism.

[36] An after-thought has made us fancy that we can understand what is meant by the following sentences of Moses of Chorenè: “The ancient Asiatics,” says he, “five centuries before our era—and especially the Hindus, the Persians, and the Chaldeans, had in their possession a quantity of historical and scientific books. These works were partially borrowed, partially translated in the Greek language, mostly since the Ptolemies had established the Alexandrian library and encouraged the writers by their liberalities, so that the Greek language became the deposit of all the sciences” (“History of Armenia”). Therefore, the greater part of the literature included in the 700,000 volumes of the Alexandrian Library was due to India, and her next neighbors.

[37] Bonamy says in “Le Bibliotheque d’Alexandrie,” quoting, we suppose, the Presbyter Orosius, who was an eye-witness, “thirty years later.”

[38] Since the above was written, the spirit here described has been beautifully exemplified at Barcelona, Spain, where the Bishop Fray Joachim invited the local spiritualists to witness a formal burning of spiritual books. We find the account in a paper called “The Revelation,” published at Alicante, which sensibly adds that the performance was “a caricature of the memorable epoch of the Inquisition.”

[39] E. Pococke gives the variations of the name Buddha as: Bud’ha, Buddha, Booddha, Butta, Pout, Pote, Pto, Pte, Phte, Phtha, Phut, etc., etc. See “India in Greece,” Note, Appendix, 397.

[40] The tiara of the Pope is also a perfect copy of that of the Dalaï-Lama of Thibet.

[41] It is the traditional policy of the College of Cardinals to elect, whenever practicable, the new Pope among the oldest valetudinarians. The hierophant of the Eleusinia was likewise always an old man, and unmarried.

[42] This is not correct.

[43] “Le Spiritisme dans le Monde,” p. 28.

[44] Translated by Prof. Draper for “Conflict between Religion and Science;” book xii.

[45] “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.”

[46] “Sohar Comment.,” Gen. xl. 10; “Kabbal. Denud.,” i., 528.

[47] “The beings which the philosophers of other peoples distinguish by the name ‘Dæmons,’ Moses names ‘Angels,’” says Philo Judæus.—“De Gigant,” i. 253.

[48] Deuteronomy xxxiii. 2., אשדת is translated “fiery law” in the English Bible.

[49] See Rees’s “Encyclopædia,” art. Kabala.

[50] “Histor. Manich.,” Liv. vi., ch. i., p. 291.

[51] “The altogether mystical coloring of Christianity harmonized with the Essene rules of life and opinions, and it is not improbable that Jesus and John the Baptist were initiated into the Essene Mysteries, to which Christianity may be indebted for many a form of expression; as indeed the community of Therapeutæ, an offspring of the Essene order, soon belonged wholly to Christianity” (“Yost,” i., 411—quoted by the author of “Sod, the Son of the Man”).

[52] A. Franck: “Die Kabbala.”

[53] “Le Spiritisme dans le Monde.”

[54] “Asiàt. Trans.,” i., p. 579.

[55] Louis Jacolliot: “The Initiates of the Ancient Temples.”

[56] Franck: “Die Kabbala.”

[57] See “Conflict between Religion and Science,” p. 224.

[58] See “Sohar;” “Kab. Den.;” “The Book of Mystery,” the oldest book of the kabalists; and Milman: “History of Christianity,” pp. 212, 213-215.

[59] Milman: “History of Christianity,” p. 280. The Kurios and Kora are mentioned repeatedly in “Justin Martyr.” See p. 97.

[60] See Olshausen: “Biblischer Commentar über sammtliche Schriften des Neuen Testaments,” ii.

[61] There is a wide-spread superstition (?), especially among the Slavonians and Russians, that the magician or wizard cannot die before he has passed the “word” to a successor. So deeply is it rooted among the popular beliefs, that we do not imagine there is a person in Russia who has not heard of it. It is but too easy to trace the origin of this superstition to the old Mysteries which had been for ages spread all over the globe. The ancient Variago-Rouss had his Mysteries in the North as well as in the South of Russia; and there are many relics of the by-gone faith scattered in the lands watered by the sacred Dnieper, the baptismal Jordan of all Russia. No Znâchar (the knowing one) or Koldoun (sorcerer), male or female, can die in fact before he has passed the mysterious word to some one. The popular belief is that unless he does that he will linger and suffer for weeks and months, and were he even finally to get liberated, it would be only to wander on earth, unable to quit its region unless he finds a successor even after death. How far the belief may be verified by others, we do not know, but we have seen a case which, for its tragical and mysterious dénoument, deserves to be given here as an illustration of the subject in hand. An old man, of over one hundred years of age, a peasant-serf in the government of S——, having a wide reputation as a sorcerer and healer, was said to be dying for several days, and still unable to die. The report spread like lightning, and the poor old fellow was shunned by even the members of his own family, as the latter were afraid of receiving the unwelcome inheritance. At last the public rumor in the village was that he had sent a message to a colleague less versed than himself in the art, and who, although he lived in a distant district, was nevertheless coming at the call, and would be on hand early on the following morning. There was at that time on a visit to the proprietor of the village a young physician who, belonging to the famous school of Nihilism of that day, laughed outrageously at the idea. The master of the house, being a very pious man, and but half inclined to make so cheap of the “superstition,” smiled—as the saying goes—but with one corner of his mouth. Meanwhile the young skeptic, to gratify his curiosity, had made a visit to the dying man, had found that he could not live twenty-four hours longer, and, determined to prove the absurdity of the “superstition,” had taken means to detain the coming “successor” at a neighboring village.

Early in the morning a company of four persons, comprising the physician, the master of the place, his daughter, and the writer of the present lines, went to the hut in which was to be achieved the triumph of skepticism. The dying man was expecting his liberator every moment, and his agony at the delay became extreme. We tried to persuade the physician to humor the patient, were it for humanity’s sake. He only laughed. Getting hold with one hand of the old wizard’s pulse, he took out his watch with the other, and remarking in French that all would be over in a few moments, remained absorbed in his professional experiment. The scene was solemn and appalling. Suddenly the door opened, and a young boy entered with the intelligence, addressed to the doctor, that the koum was lying dead drunk at a neighboring village, and, according to his orders, could not be with “grandfather” till the next day. The young doctor felt confused, and was just going to address the old man, when, as quick as lightning, the Znâchar snatched his hand from his grasp and raised himself in bed. His deep-sunken eyes flashed; his yellow-white beard and hair streaming round his livid face made him a dreadful sight. One instant more, and his long, sinewy arms were clasped round the physician’s neck, as with a supernatural force he drew the doctor’s head closer and closer to his own face, where he held him as in a vise, while whispering words inaudible to us in his ear. The skeptic struggled to free himself, but before he had time to make one effective motion the work had evidently been done; the hands relaxed their grasp, and the old sorcerer fell on his back—a corpse! A strange and ghostly smile had settled on the stony lips—a smile of fiendish triumph and satisfied revenge; but the doctor looked paler and more ghastly than the dead man himself. He stared round with an expression of terror difficult to describe, and without answering our inquiries rushed out wildly from the hut, in the direction of the woods. Messengers were sent after him, but he was nowhere to be found. About sunset a report was heard in the forest. An hour later his body was brought home, with a bullet through his head, for the skeptic had blown out his brains!

What made him commit suicide? What magic spell of sorcery had the “word” of the dying wizard left on his mind? Who can tell?

[62] “Anacalypsis;” also Tertullian.

[63] “Anthon,” art. Eleusinia.

[64] Dunlap: “Musah, His Mysteries,” p. 71.

[65] 1 Kings, viii. 2.

[66] Let us remember in this connection that Col. Van Kennedy has long ago declared his opinion that Babylonia was once the seat of the Sanscrit language and of Brahmanical influence.

[67] “‘The Agrouchada-Parikshai,’ which discloses, to a certain extent, the order of initiation, does not give the formula of evocation,” says Jacolliot, and he adds that, according to some Brahmans, “these formula were never written, they were and still are imparted in a whisper in the ear of the adepts” (“mouth to ear, and the word at low breath,” say the Masons).—“Le Spiritisme dans le Monde,” p. 108.

[68] “Le Spiritisme dans le Monde,” p. 108.

[69] W. D. Whitney: “Oriental and Linguistic Studies, The Veda, etc.”

[70] Jacolliot seems to have very logically demonstrated the absurd contradictions of some philologists, anthropologists, and Orientalists, in regard to their Akkado and Semito mania. “There is not, perhaps, much of good faith in their negations,” he writes. “The scientists who invent Turanian peoples know very well that in Manu alone, there is more of veritable science and philosophy than in all that this pretended Semitism has hitherto furnished us with; but they are the slaves of a path which some of them are following the last fifteen, twenty, or even thirty years.... We expect, therefore, nothing of the present. India will owe its reconstitution to the scientists of the next generation” (“Le Genèse de l’Humanité,” pp. 60-61).

[71] Cory: “Anc. Frag.”

[72] Movers: “Phoinizer,” 263.

[73] Dunlap: “Sp. Hist. of Man,” p. 281.

[74] Siva is not a god of the Vedas, strictly speaking. When the Vedas were written, he held the rank of Maha-Deva or Bel among the gods of aboriginal India.

[75] “De Antro Nympharum.”

[76] “Navarette,” book ii., c. x.

[77] “On the Origin of Heathen Idolatry.”

[78] Isis and Osiris are said, in the Egyptian sacred books, to have appeared (i.e., been worshipped), on earth, later than Thot, the first Hermes, called Trismegistus, who wrote all their sacred books according to the command of God or by “divine revelation.” The companion and instructor of Isis and Osiris was Thot, or Hermes II., who was an incarnation of the celestial Hermes.

[79] Lord Kingsborough: “Ant. Mex.,” p. 165.

[80] “Ap. Malal.,” lib. i., cap. iv.

[81] Payne Knight: “Phallic Worship.”

[82] The Celsus above mentioned, who lived between the second and third centuries, is not Celsus the Epicurean. The latter wrote several works against Magic, and lived earlier, during the reign of Hadrian.

[83] We have the facts from a trustworthy witness, having no interest to invent such a story. Having injured his leg in a fall from the steamer into the boat in which he was to land at the Mount, he was taken care of by these monks, and during his convalescence, through gifts of money and presents, became their greatest friend, and finally won their entire confidence. Having asked for the loan of some books, he was taken by the Superior to a large cellar in which they keep their sacred vessels and other property. Opening a great trunk, full of old musty manuscripts and rolls, he was invited by the Superior to “amuse himself.” The gentleman was a scholar, and well versed in Greek and Latin text. “I was amazed,” he says, in a private letter, “and had my breath taken away, on finding among these old parchments, so unceremoniously treated, some of the most valuable relics of the first centuries, hitherto believed to have been lost.” Among others he found a half-destroyed manuscript, which he is perfectly sure must be a copy of the “True Doctrine,” the Λόγος ἀληθής of Celsus, out of which Origen quoted whole pages. The traveller took as many notes as he could on that day, but when he came to offer to the Superior to purchase some of these writings he found, to his great surprise, that no amount of money would tempt the monks. They did not know what the manuscripts contained, nor “did they care,” they said. But the “heap of writing,” they added, was transmitted to them from one generation to another, and there was a tradition among them that these papers would one day become the means of crushing the “Great Beast of the Apocalypse,” their hereditary enemy, the Church of Rome. They were constantly quarrelling and fighting with the Catholic monks, and among the whole “heap” they knew that there was a “holy” relic which protected them. They did not know which, and so in their doubt abstained. It appears that the Superior, a shrewd Greek, understood his bevue and repented of his kindness, for first of all he made the traveller give him his most sacred word of honor, strengthened by an oath he made him take on the image of the Holy Patroness of the Island, never to betray their secret, and never mention, at least, the name of their convent. And finally, when the anxious student who had passed a fortnight in reading all sorts of antiquated trash before he happened to stumble over some precious manuscript, expressed the desire to have the key, to “amuse himself” with the writings once more, he was very naïvely informed that the “key had been lost,” and that they did not know where to look for it. And thus he was left to the few notes he had taken.

[84] See the historical romance of Canon Kingsley, “Hypatia,” for a highly picturesque account of the tragical fate of this young martyr.

[85] We beg the reader to bear in mind that it is the same Cyril who was accused and proved guilty of having sold the gold and silver ornaments of his church, and spent the money. He pleaded guilty, but tried to excuse himself on the ground that he had used the money for the poor, but could not give evidence of it. His duplicity with Arius and his party is well known. Thus one of the first Christian saints, and the founder of the Trinity, appears on the pages of history as a murderer and a thief!

[86] “La Démonomanie, ou traité des Sorciers.” Paris, 1587.

[87] Dr. W. G. Soldan: “Geschichte der Hexen processe, aus den Quellen dargestellt.” Stuttgart, 1843.

[88] Frederick Forner, Suffragan of Bamberg, author of a treatise against heretics and sorcerers, under the title of “Panoplia Armaturæ Dei.”

[89] “Sorcery and Magic,” by T. Wright, M.A., F.S.A., etc., Corresponding Member of the National Institute of France, vol. ii., p. 185.

[90] Besides these burnings in Germany, which amount to many thousands, we find some very interesting statements in Prof. Draper’s “Conflict between Religion and Science.” On page 146, he says: “The families of the convicted were plunged into irretrievable ruin. Llorente, the historian of the Inquisition, computes that Torquemada and his collaborators, in the course of eighteen years, burned at the stake 10,220 persons, 6,860 in effigy, and otherwise punished 97,321!... With unutterable disgust and indignation, we learn that the papal government realized much money by selling to the rich, dispensations to secure them from the Inquisition.”

[91] “Sorcery and Magic;” “The Burnings at Würtzburg,” p. 186.

[92] And retinted in the blood of the millions murdered in his name—in the no less innocent blood than his own, of the little child-witches!

[93] St. Augustine: “City of God,” I, xxi., ch. vi.; des Mousseaux: “Mœurs et Pratiques des Demons.”

[94] A correspondent of the London “Times” describes the Catalonian exorcist in the following lines:

“About the 14th of October it was privately announced that a young woman of seventeen or eighteen years of age, of the lower class, having long been afflicted with ‘a hatred of holy things,’ the senior priest of the Church of the Holy Spirit would cure her of her disease. The exhibition was to be held in a church frequented by the best part of the community. The church was dark, but a sickly light was shed by wax lights on the sable forms of some eighty or a hundred persons who clustered round the presbyterio, or sanctuary, in front of the altar. Within the little enclosure or sanctuary, separated from the crowd by a light railing, lay, on a common bench, with a little pillow for her head to recline upon, a poorly-clad girl, probably of the peasant or artisan class; her brother or husband stood at her feet to restrain her (at times) frantic kicking by holding her legs. The door of the vestry opened; the exhibitor—I mean the priest—came in. The poor girl, not without just reason, ‘had an aversion to holy things,’ or, at least, the 400 devils within her distorted body had such an aversion, and in the confusion of the moment, thinking that the father was ‘a holy thing,’ she doubled up her legs, screamed out with twitching mouth, her whole body writhing, and threw herself nearly off the bench. The male attendant seized her legs, the women supported her head and swept out her dishevelled hair. The priest advanced and, mingling familiarly with the shuddering and horror-struck crowd, said, pointing at the suffering child, now sobbing and twitching on the bench, ‘Promise me, my children, that you will be prudent (prudentes), and of a truth, sons and daughters mine, you shall see marvels.’ The promise was given. The exhibitor went to procure stole and short surplice (estola y roquete), and returned in a moment, taking his stand at the side of the ‘possessed with the devils,’ with his face toward the group of students. The order of the day’s proceedings was a lecture to the bystanders, and the operation of exorcising the devils. ‘You know,’ said the priest, ‘that so great is this girl’s aversion to holy things, myself included, that she goes into convulsions, kicks, screams, and distorts her body the moment she arrives at the corner of this street, and her convulsive struggles reach their climax when she enters the sacred house of the Most High.’ Turning to the prostrate, shuddering, most unhappy object of his attack, the priest commenced: ‘In the name of God, of the saints, of the blessed Host, of every holy sacrament of our Church, I adjure thee, Rusbel, come out of her.’ (N. B. ‘Rusbel’ is the name of a devil, the devil having 257 names in Catalonia.) Thus adjured, the girl threw herself—in an agony of convulsion, till her distorted face, foam-bespattered lips and writhing limbs grew well-nigh stiff—at full length upon the floor, and, in language semi-obscene, semi-violent, screamed out, ‘I don’t choose to come out, you thieves, scamps, robbers.’ At last, from the quivering lips of the girl, came the words, ‘I will;’ but the devil added, with traditional perversity, ‘I will cast the 100 out, but by the mouth of the girl.’ The priest objected. The exit, he said, of 100 devils out of the small Spanish mouth of the woman would ‘leave her suffocated.’ Then the maddened girl said she must undress herself for the devils to escape. This petition the holy father refused. ‘Then I will come out through the right foot, but first’—the girl had on a hempen sandal, she was obviously of the poorest class—‘you must take off her sandal.’ The sandal was untied; the foot gave a convulsive plunge; the devil and his myrmidons (so the cura said, looking round triumphantly) had gone to their own place. And, assured of this, the wretched dupe of a girl lay quite still. The bishop was not cognizant of this freak of the clergy, and the moment it came to the ears of the civil authorities, the sharpest means were taken to prevent a repetition of the scandal.”

[95] Louis Jacolliot: “Le Spiritisme dans le Monde,” p. 162.

[96] St. Augustine: “City of God.”

[97] “Mœurs et Pratiques des Demons,” p. ii.

[98] Des Mousseaux: “Table des Matières.”

[99] “Demonologia;” London, 1827, J. Bumpus, 23 Skinner Street.

[100] “Traité Preparatif à l’Apologie pour Herodote,” c. 39.

[101] De Missa Privatâ et Unctione Sacerdotum.

[102] See the “Life of St. Dominick” and the story about the miraculous Rosary; also the “Golden Legend.”

[103] James de Varasse, known by the Latin name of James de Veragine, was Vicar General of the Dominicans and Bishop of Genoa in 1290.

[104] Thirteenth century.

[105] “Rituale Romanum,” pp. 475-478. Parisiis, 1852.

[106] “Mœurs et Pratiques des Demons,” p. 177.

[107] See the narrative selected from the “Golden Legend,” by Alban Butler.

[108] See the “Golden Legend;” “Life of St. Francis;” “Demonologia.”

[109] “The Mythology of the Hindus,” by Charles Coleman. Japan.

[110] “Supernatural Religion.”

[111] Neither do we, if by true religion the world shall at last understand the adoration of one Supreme, Invisible, and Unknown Deity, by works and acts, not by the profession of vain human dogmas. But our intention is to go farther. We desire to demonstrate that if we exclude ceremonial and fetish worship from being regarded as essential parts of religion, then the true Christ-like principles have been exemplified, and true Christianity practiced since the days of the apostles, exclusively among Buddhists and “heathen.”

[112] “Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism,” p. xvi.

[113] “Discourses of Miracles wrought in the Roman Catholic Church; or a full Refutation of Dr. Stillingfleet’s unjust Exceptions against Miracles.” Octavo, 1676, p. 64.

[114] After this, why should the Roman Catholics object to the claims of the Spiritualists? If, without proof, they believe in the “materialization” of Mary and John, for Ignatius, how can they logically deny the materialization of Katie and John (King), when it is attested by the careful experiments of Mr. Crookes, the English chemist, and the cumulative testimony of a large number of witnesses?

[115] The “Mother of God” takes precedence therefore of God?

[116] See the “New Era” for July, 1875. N. Y.

[117] “Paul and Plato.”

[118] See “La Magie au XIXme Siècle,” p. 168.

[119] “Rom. Rit.,” edit. of 1851, pp. 291-296, etc., etc.

[120] Creature of salt, air, water, or of any object to be enchanted or blessed, is a technical word in magic, adopted by the Christian clergy.

[121] “Rom. Rit.,” pp. 421-435.

[122] See “Art-Magic,” art. Peter d’Abano.

[123] “Ritual,” pp. 429-433; see “La Magie au XIXme Siècle,” pp. 171, 172.

[124] “Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie,” vol. ii., p. 88.

[125] “Conferences,” by Le Père Ventura, vol. ii., part i., p. lvi., Preface.

[126] “Conflict between Religion and Science,” p. 62.

[127] “De Baptismo Contra Donatistas,” lib. vi., ch. xliv.

[128] “Conflict, etc.,” p. 37.

[129] Ibid.

[130] “Paul and Plato,” by A. Wilder, editor of “The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries,” of Thomas Taylor.

[131] “Paul and Plato.”

[132] See Taylor’s “Eleus. and Bacchic Myst.”

[133] 1 Corin., iii. 10.

[134] In its most extensive meaning, the Sanscrit word has the same literal sense as the Greek term; both imply “revelation,” by no human agent, but through the “receiving of the sacred drink.” In India the initiated received the “Soma,” sacred drink, which helped to liberate his soul from the body; and in the Eleusinian Mysteries it was the sacred drink offered at the Epopteia. The Grecian Mysteries are wholly derived from the Brahmanical Vedic rites, and the latter from the ante-vedic religious Mysteries—primitive Buddhist philosophy.

[135] It is needless to state that the Gospel according to John was not written by John but by a Platonist or a Gnostic belonging to the Neo-platonic school.

[136] The fact that Peter persecuted the “Apostle to the Gentiles,” under that name, does not necessarily imply that there was no Simon Magus individually distinct from Paul. It may have become a generic name of abuse. Theodoret and Chrysostom, the earliest and most prolific commentators on the Gnosticism of those days, seem actually to make of Simon a rival of Paul, and to state that between them passed frequent messages. The former, as a diligent propagandist of what Paul terms the “antitheses of the Gnosis” (1st Epistle to Timothy), must have been a sore thorn in the side of the apostle. There are sufficient proofs of the actual existence of Simon Magus.

[137] “Introd. to Eleus. and Bacchic Mysteries,” p. x. Had we not trustworthy kabalistic tradition to rely upon, we might be, perhaps, forced to question whether the authorship of the Revelation is to be ascribed to the apostle of that name. He seems to be termed John the Theologist.

[138] Bunsen: “Egypt’s Place in Universal History,” vol. v., p. 90.

[139] See de Rougé: “Stele,” p. 44; Ptar (videus) is interpreted on it “to appear,” with a sign of interrogation after it—the usual mark of scientific perplexity. In Bunsen’s fifth volume of “Egypte,” the interpretation following is “Illuminator,” which is more correct.

[140] Bunsen’s “Egypt,” vol. v., p. 90.

[141] It is the property of a mystic whom we met in Syria.

[142] The Priests of Isis were tonsured.

[143] See “Ancient Faiths,” vol. ii., pp. 915-918.

[144] “The Gnostics and their Remains,” p. 71.

[145] See illustration in Inman’s “Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism,” p. 27.

[146] Ibid., p. 76.

[147] Initiates and seers.

[148] The augur’s, and now bishop’s, pastoral crook.

[149] “The Heathen Religion.”

[150] “Pères du Desert d’Orient,” vol. ii., p. 283.

[151] Justin Martyr: “Quæst.,” xxiv.

[152] See Taylor’s “Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries;” Porphyry and others.

[153] Franck: “Die Kabbala.”

[154] “Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians.”

[155] “Divine Legation of Moses;” The “Eleusinian Mysteries” as quoted by Thos. Taylor.

[156] This expression must not be understood literally; for as in the initiation of certain Brotherhoods it has a secret meaning, hinted at by Pythagoras, when he describes his feelings after the initiation and tells that he was crowned by the gods in whose presence he had drunk “the waters of life”—in Hindu, â-bi-hayât, fount of life.

[157] This original and very long sermon was preached in a church at Brooklyn, N. Y., on the 15th day of April, 1877. On the following morning, the reverend orator was called in the “Sun” a gibbering charlatan; but this deserved epithet will not prevent other reverend buffoons doing the same and even worse. And this is the religion of Christ! Far better disbelieve in him altogether than caricature one’s God in such a manner. We heartily applaud the “Sun” for the following views: “And then when Talmage makes Christ say to Martha in the tantrums: ‘Don’t worry, but sit down on this ottoman,’ he adds the climax to a scene that the inspired writers had nothing to say about. Talmage’s buffoonery is going too far. If he were the worst heretic in the land, instead of being straight in his orthodoxy, he would not do so much evil to religion as he does by his familiar blasphemies.”

[158] “Le Spiritisme dans le Monde,” p. 68.

[159] Ibid., pp. 78, 79.

[160] Louis Jacolliot: “Phénomenes et Manifestations.”

[161] Pisatshas, dæmons of the race of the gnomes, the giants and the vampires.

[162] Gandarbas, good dæmons, celestial seraphs, singers.

[163] Asuras and Nagas are the Titanic spirits and the dragon or serpent-headed spirits.

[164] See Arnolius: “Op. Cit.,” pp. 249, 250.

[165] See Inman’s “Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism.”

[166] Introduction to Taylor’s “Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries,” published by J. W. Bouton.

[167] Illustrated figures “from an ancient Rosary of the blessed Virgin Mary, printed at Venice, 1524, with a license from the Inquisition.” In the illustrations given by Dr. Inman the Virgin is represented in an Assyrian “grove,” the abomination in the eyes of the Lord, according to the Bible prophets. “The book in question,” says the author, “contains numerous figures, all resembling closely the Mesopotamian emblem of Ishtar. The presence of the woman therein identifies the two as symbolic of Isis, or la nature; and a man bowing down in adoration thereof shows the same idea as is depicted in Assyrian sculptures, where males offer to the goddess symbols of themselves” (See “Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism,” p. 91. Second edition. J. W. Bouton, publisher, New York).