A Dissertation on the Origin of Evil
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Lord Brougham >> A Dissertation on the Origin of Evil
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THE FALLEN STAR, or, THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION
by E. L. Bulwer
AND
A DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
by Lord Brougham
PUBLISHER'S PREFACE
RELIGION, says Noah Webster in his _American Dictionary of the
English Language_, is derived from "Religo, to bind anew;" and,
in this _History of a False Religion_, our author has shown how
easily its votaries were insnared, deceived, and mentally bound
in a labyrinth of falsehood and error, by a designing knave, who
established a new religion and a new order of priesthood by
imposing on their ignorance and credulity.
The history of the origin of one supernatural religion will,
with slight alterations, serve to describe them all. Their claim
to credence rests on the exhibition of so-called miracles--that
is, on a violation of the laws of nature,--for, if religions
were founded on the demonstrated truths of science, there would
be no mystery, no supernaturalism, no miracles, no skepticism,
no false religion. We would have only verified truths and
demonstrated facts for the basis of our belief. But this simple
foundation does not satisfy the unreasoning multitude. They
demand signs, portents, mysteries, wonders and miracles for
their faith and the supply of prophets, knaves and impostors has
always been found ample to satisfy this abnormal demand of
credulity.
Designing men, even at the present day, find little difficulty
in establishing new systems of faith and belief. Joseph Smith,
who invented the Mormon religion, had more followers and
influence in this country at his death, than the Carpenter's Son
obtained centuries ago from the unlettered inhabitants of
Palestine; and yet Smith achieved his success among educated
people in this so-called enlightened age, while Jesus taught in
an age of semi-barbarism and faith, when both Jews and Pagans
asserted and believed that beasts, birds, reptiles and even
fishes understood human language, were often gifted with human
speech, and sometimes seemed to possess even more than ordinary
human intelligence.
They taught that the serpent, using the language of sophistry,
beguiled Eve in Eden, who in turn corrupted Adam, her first and
only husband. At the baptism of Jesus by John in the river
Jordan, the voice of a dove resounded in the heavens, saying,
quite audibly and distinctly, "Thou art my beloved Son; in thee
I am well pleased." Balaam disputed with his patient beast of
burden, on their celebrated journey in the land of Moab, and the
ass proved wiser in the argument that ensued than the inspired
prophet who bestrode him, The great fish Oannes left his native
element and taught philosophy to the Chaldeans on dry land.
One reputable woman, of Jewish lineage,--the mother of an
interesting family--was changed to a pillar of salt in Sodom
while another female of great notoriety known to fame as the
celebrated "Witch of Endor," raised Samuel from his grave in
Ramah. Saint Peter found a shilling in the mouth of a fish which
he caught in the Sea of Galilee, and this lucky incident enabled
the impecunious apostle to pay the "tribute money" in Capernaum.
Another famous Israelite,--so it is said,--broke the record of
balloon ascensions in Judea, and ascended into heaven in a
chariot of fire.
In an age of ignorance wonders abound, prodigies occur, and
miracles become common, The untaught masses are easily deceived,
and their unreasoning credulity enables them to proudly boast of
their unquestioning faith. When their feelings are excited and
their passions aroused by professional evangelists, they even
profess to believe that which they cannot comprehend; and, in
the satirical language of Bulwer, they endeavor to "_assist
their ignorance by the conjectures of their superstition_."
Among the multitudes of diverse and opposing religions which
afflict mankind, it is self-evident that but one religion may
justly claim the inspiration of truth, and it is equally evident
to all reasoning minds that that religion is the religion of
kindness and humanity,--the religion of noble thoughts and
generous deeds,--which removes the enmities of race and creed,
and "makes the whole world kin!" And which, in its observance is
blessed with sympathy, friendship, happiness and love.
This religion needs no creed, no profession of faith, no
incense, no prayer, no penance, no sacrifice. Its whole duty
consists in comforting the afflicted, assisting the unfortunate,
protecting the helpless, and in honestly fulfilling our duties
to our fellow mortals. In the language of Confucius, the ancient
Chinese Sage, it is simply "to behave to others as I would
require others to behave to me."
"Do unto others as you would they should do unto you," says
Jesus; and in the Epistle of James, we are told that "Pure
Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To
visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep
himself unspotted from the world."
The same benign and generous conduct is commended in even
grander and nobler language in the lectures to the French
Masonic Lodges: "Love one another, teach one another, help one
another. That is all our doctrine, all our science, all our
law."
It is believed that the learned dissertation of Lord Brougham on
the _Origin of Evil_, which is annexed to this work, will need
no commendation to ensure its careful perusal.
PETER ECKLER.
THE FALLEN STAR, or, THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION
by E. L. Bulwer
HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION.
AN ALLEGORY OF THE STARS.
And the Stars sat, each on his ruby throne, and watched with
sleepless eyes upon the world. It was the night ushering in the
new year, a night on which every star receives from the
archangel that then visits the universal galaxy, its peculiar
charge.
The destinies of men and empires are then portioned forth for
the coming year, and, unconsciously to ourselves, our fates
become minioned to the stars.
A hushed and solemn night is that in which the dark gates of
time open to receive the ghost of the dead year, and the young
and radiant stranger rushes forth from the clouded chasms of
eternity. On that night, it is said that there are given to the
spirits that we see not, a privilege and a power; the dead are
troubled in their forgotten graves, and men feast and laugh,
while demon and angel are contending for their doom.
It was night in heaven; all was unutterably silent, the music of
the spheres had paused, and not a sound came from the angels of
the stars; and they who sat upon those shining thrones were
three thousand and ten, each resembling each.
Eternal youth clothed their radiant limbs with celestial beauty,
and on their faces was written the dread of calm, that fearful
stillness which feels not, sympathizes not with the dooms over
which it broods.
War, tempest, pestilence, the rise of empires, and their fall,
they ordain, they, compass, unexultant and uncompassionate. The
fell and thrilling crimes that stalk abroad when the world
sleeps--the parricide with his stealthy step, and horrent brow,
and lifted knife; the unwifed mother that glides out and looks
behind, and behind, and shudders, and casts her babe upon the
river, and hears the wail, and pities not--the splash, and does
not tremble!
These the starred kings behold--to these they lead the
unconscious step; but the guilt blanches not their lustre,
neither doth remorse wither their unwrinkled youth.
Each star wore a kingly diadem; round the loins of each was a
graven belt, graven with many and mighty signs; and the foot of
each was on a burning ball, and the right arm dropped over the
knee as they bent down from their thrones; they moved not a limb
or feature, save the finger of the right hand, which ever and
anon moved slowly, pointing, and regulated the fates of men as
the hand of the dial speaks the career of time.
One only of the three thousand and ten wore not the same aspect
as his crowned brethren; a star, smaller than the rest, and less
luminous. The countenance of this star was not impressed with
the awful calmness of the others; but there were sullenness and
discontent upon his mighty brow.
And this star said to himself--"Behold, I am created less
glorious than my fellows, and the archangel apportions not to me
the same lordly destinies. Not for me are the dooms of kings and
bards, the rulers of empires, or, yet nobler, the swayers and
harmonists of souls. Sluggish are the spirits and base the lot
of the men I am ordained to lead through a dull life to a
fameless grave. And wherefore?--Is it mine own fault, or is it
the fault which is not mine, that I was woven of beams less
glorious than my brethren? Lo! when the archangel comes, I will
bow not my crowned head to his decrees. I will speak, as the
ancestral Lucifer before me: _he_ rebelled because of his glory,
_I_ because of my obscurity; _he_ from the ambition of pride,
and _I_ from its discontent."
And while the star was thus communing with himself, the upward
heavens were parted as by a long river of light, and adown that
stream swiftly, and without sound, sped the archangel visitor of
the stars; his vast limbs floated in the liquid lustre, and his
outspread wings, each plume the glory of a sun, bore him
noiselessly along; but thick clouds veiled his lustre from the
eyes of mortals, and while above all was bathed in the serenity
of his splendor, tempest and storm broke below over the children
of the earth:
"He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was under his
feet."
And the stillness on the faces of the stars became yet more
still, and the awfulness was humbled into awe. Right above their
thrones paused the course of the archangel; and his wings
stretched from east to west, overshadowing with the shadow of
light the immensity of space. Then forth in the shining
stillness, rolled the dread music of his voice: and, fulfilling
the heraldry of god, to each star he appointed the duty and the
charge, and each star bowed his head yet lower as he heard the
fiat, while his throne rocked and trembled at the majesty of the
word. But at last, when each of the brighter stars had, in
succession, received the mandate, and the viceroyalty over the
nations of the earth, the purple and diadems of kings--the
archangel addressed the lesser star as he sat apart from his
fellows
"Behold," said the archangel, "the rude tribes of the north, the
fishermen of the river that flows beneath, and the hunters of
the forests, that darken the mountain-tops with verdure! these
be thy charge, and their destinies thy care. Nor deem thou, O
star of the sullen beams, that thy duties are less glorious than
the duties of thy brethren; for the peasant is not less to thy
master and mine than the monarch; nor doth the doom of empires
rest more upon the sovereign than on the herd. The passions and
the heart are the dominion of the stars--a mighty realm; nor
less mighty beneath the hide that garbs the shepherd, than the
jewelled robes of eastern kings."
Then the star lifted his pale front from his breast, and
answered the archangel:
"Lo!" he said, "ages have past, and each year thou hast
appointed me to the same ignoble charge. Release me, I pray
thee, from the duties that I scorn; or, if thou wilt that the
lowlier race of men be my charge, give unto me the charge not of
many, but of one, and suffer me to breathe into him the desire
that spurns the valleys of life, and ascends its steeps. If the
humble are given to me, let there be amongst them one whom I may
lead on the mission that shall abase the proud; for, behold, O
Appointer of the Stars, as I have sat for uncounted years upon
my solitary throne, brooding over the things beneath, my spirit
hath gathered wisdom from the changes that shift below. Looking
upon the tribes of earth, I have seen how the multitude are
swayed, and tracked the steps that lead weakness into power; and
fain would I be the ruler of one who, if abased, shall aspire to
rule."
As a sudden cloud over the face of noon was the change on the
brow of the archangel.
"Proud and melancholy star," said the herald, "thy wish would
war with the courses of the invisible destiny, that, throned far
above, sways and harmonizes all; the source from which the
lesser rivers of fate are eternally gushing through the heart of
the universe of things. Thinkest thou that thy wisdom, of
itself, can lead the peasant to become a king?"
And the crowned star gazed undauntedly on the face of the
archangel, and answered:
"Yea!--grant me but one trial!"
Ere the archangel could reply, the farthest centre of the heaven
was rent as by a thunderbolt; and the divine herald covered his
face with his hands, and a voice low and sweet, and mild with
the consciousness of unquestionable power, spoke forth to the
repining star:
"The time has arrived when thou mayest have thy wish. Below
thee, upon yon solitary plain, sits a mortal, gloomy as thyself,
who, born under thy influence, may be moulded to thy will."
The voice ceased, as the voice of a dream. Silence was over the
seas of space, and the archangel, once more borne aloft, slowly
soared away into the farther heaven, to promulgate the divine
bidding to the stars of far-distant worlds.
But the soul of the discontented star exulted within itself; and
it said, "I will call forth a king from the valley of the
herdsmen, that shall trample on the kings subject to my fellows,
and render the charge of the contemned star more glorious than
the minions of its favored brethren; thus shall I revenge
neglect--thus shall I prove my claim hereafter to the heritage
of the great of earth!"
At that time, though the world had rolled on for ages, and the
pilgrimage of man had passed through various states of existence,
which our dim traditionary knowledge has not preserved, yet the
condition of our race in the northern hemisphere was then what
_we_, in our imperfect lore, have conceived to be among the
earliest.
FORMING A NEW RELIGION.
By a rude and vast pile of stones, the masonry of arts
forgotten, a lonely man sat at midnight, gazing upon the
heavens. A storm had just passed from the earth--the clouds had
rolled away, and the high stars looked down upon the rapid
waters of the Rhine; and no sound save the roar of the waves and
the dripping of the rain from the mighty trees, was heard around
the ruined pile: the white sheep lay scattered on the plain, and
slumber with them. He sat watching over the herd, lest the foes
of a neighboring tribe seized them unawares, and thus he
coummuned with himself:
"The king sits upon his throne, and is honored by a warrior
race, and the warrior exults in the trophies he has won; the
step of the huntsman is bold upon the mountain-top, and his name
is sung at night round the pine-fires, by the lips of the bard;
and the bard himself hath honor in the hail. But I, who belong
not to the race of kings, and whose limbs can bound not to the
rapture of war, nor scale the eyries of the eagle and the haunts
of the swift stag; whose hand cannot string the harp, and whose
voice is harsh in the song; _I_ have neither honor nor command,
and men bow not the head as I pass along; yet do I feel within
me the consciousness of a great power that should rule my
species--not obey. My eye pierces the secret hearts of men--I
see their thoughts ere their lips proclaim them; and I scorn,
while I see, the weakness and the vices which I never shared. I
laugh at the madness of the warrior--I mock within my soul at
the tyranny of kings. Surely there is something in man's nature
more fitted to command--more worthy of renoun, than the sinews
of the arm, or the swiftness of the feet, or the accident of
birth!"
As Morven, the son of Osslah, thus mused within himself, still
looking at the heavens, the solitary man beheld a star suddenly
shooting from its place, and speeding through the silent air,
till it as suddenly paused right over the midnight river, and
facing the inmate of the pile of stones.
As he gazed upon the star strange thoughts grew slowly over him.
He drank, as it were, from its solemn aspect, the spirit of a
great design. A dark cloud rapidly passing over the earth,
snatched the star from his sight; but left to his awakened mind
the thoughts and the dim scheme that had come to him as he
gazed.
When the sun arose one of his brethren relieved him of his
charge over the herd, and he went away, but not to his father's
home. Musingly he plunged into the dark and leafless recesses of
the winter forest; and shaped out of his wild thoughts, more
palpably and clearly, the outline of his daring hope.
While thus absorbed, he heard a great noise in the forest, and,
fearful lest the hostile tribe of the Alrich might pass that
way, he ascended one of the loftiest pine-trees, to whose
perpetual verdure the winter had not denied the shelter he
sought, and, concealed by its branches, he looked anxiously
forth in the direction whence the noise had proceed.
And IT came--it came with a tramp and a crash, and a crushing
tread upon the crunched boughs and matted leaves that strewed
the soil--it came--it came, the monster that the world now holds
no more--the mighty mammoth of the North!
Slowly it moved in its huge strength along, and its burning eyes
glittered through the gloomy shade: its jaws, falling apart,
showed the grinders with which it snapped asunder the young oaks
of the forest; and the vast tusks, which, curved downward to the
midst of its massive limbs, glistened white and ghastly,
curdling the blood of one destined hereafter to be the dreaded
ruler of the men of that distant age.
The livid eyes of the monster fastened on the form of the
herdsman, even amidst the thick darkness of the pine. It
paused--it glared upon him--its jaws opened, and a low deep
sound, as of gathering thunder, seemed to the son of Osslah as
the knell of a dreadful grave. But after glaring on him for some
moments, it again, and calmly, pursued its terrible way,
crashing the boughs as it marched along, till the last sound of
its heavy tread died away upon his ear.
Ere yet, however, before Morven had summoned the courage to
descend the tree, he saw the shining of arms through the bare
branches of the wood, and presently a small hand of the hostile
Alrich came into sight. He was perfectly hidden from them; and,
listening as they passed him, he heard one say to another:
"The night covers all things; why attack them by day?"
And he who seemed the chief of the band, answered "Right.
To-night, when they sleep in their city, we will upon them. Lo!
they will be drenched in wine, and fall like sheep into our
hands."
"But where, O chief," said a third of the band, shall our men
hide during the day? for there are many hunters among the youth
of the Oestrich tribe, and they might see us in the forest
unawares, and arm their race against our coming."
"I have prepared for that," answered the chief. "Is not the dark
cavern of Oderlin at hand? Will it not shelter us from the eyes
of the victims?"
Then the men laughed, and shouting, they went their way adown
the forest.
When they were gone Morven cautiously descended, and, striking
into a broad path, hastened to a vale that lay between the
forest and the river in which was the city where the chief of
his country dwelt.
As he passed by the warlike men, giants in that day, who
thronged the streets (if streets they might be called), their
half garments parting from their huge limbs, the quiver at their
backs, and the hunting spears in their hands, they laughed and
shouted out, and, pointing to him, cried:
"Morven, the woman! Morven, the cripple! what dost thou among
men?"
For the son of Osslah was small in stature and of slender
strength, and his step had halted from his birth; but he passed
through the warriors unheedingly.
At the outskirts of the city he came upon a tail pile, in which
some old men dwelt by themselves, and counseled the king when
times of danger, or when the failure of the season, the famine,
or the drought, perplexed the ruler, and clouded the savage
fronts of his warrior tribe.
They gave the counsels of experience, and when experience
failed, they drew, in their believing ignorance, assurances and
omens from the winds of heaven, the changes of the moon, and the
flights of the wandering birds. Filled (by the voices of the
elements, and the variety of mysteries which ever shift along
the face of things, unsolved by the wonder which pauses not, the
fear which believes, and that eternal reasoning of all experience,
which assigns causes to effects) with the notion of superior
powers, _they assisted their ignorance by the conjectures of
their superstition_. But as yet they knew no craft and practiced
no _voluntary_ delusion; they trembled too much at the mysteries,
which had created their faith, to seek to belie them. They
counselled as they believed, and the bold dream had never dared
to cross men thus worn and grey with age, of governing their
warriors and their kings by the wisdom of deceit.
The son of Osslah entered the vast pile with a fearless step,
and approached the place at the upper end of the hall, where the
old men sat in conclave.
"How, base-torn and craven limbed!" cried the eldest, who had
been a noted warrior in his day; "darest thou enter unsummoned
amidst the secret councils of the wise men? Knowest thou not,
scatterling! that the penalty is death?"
"Slay me, if thou wilt," answered Morven "but hear!
"As I sat last night in the ruined palace of our ancient kings,
tending, as my father bade me, the sheep that grazed around,
lest the fierce tribe of Alrich should descend unseen from the
mountains upon the herd, a storm came darkly on; and when the
storm, had ceased and I looked above on the sky, I saw a star
descend from its height towards me, and a voice from the star
said, 'Son of Osslah, leave thy herd and seek the council of the
wise men, and say unto them, that they take thee as one of their
number, or that sudden will be the destruction of them, and
theirs.'
"But I had courage to answer the voice, and I said, 'Mock not
the poor son of the herdsman. Behold they will kill me if I
utter so rash a word, for I am poor and valueless in the eyes of
the tribe of Oestrich, and the great in deeds and the grey of
hair alone sit in the council of the wise men.'
"Then the voice said, 'Do my bidding, and I will give thee a
token that thou comest from the powers that sway the seasons and
sail upon the eagles of the winds. Say unto the wise men that
this very night if they refuse to receive thee of their band,
evil shall fall upon them, and the morrow shall dawn in blood.'
"Then the voice ceased, and a cloud passed over the star; and I
communed with myself, and came, O dread fathers, mournfully unto
you. For I feared that ye would smite me because of my bold
tongue, and that ye would, sentence me to the death, in that I
asked what may scarce be given even to the sons of kings."
Then the grim elders looked one at the other and marvelled much,
nor knew they what answer they should make to the herdsman's
son.
At length one of the wise men said, "Surely there must be truth
in the son of Osslah, for he would not dare to falsify the great
lights of heaven. If he had given unto men the words of the
star, verily we might doubt the truth. But who would brave the
vengeance of the gods of night?"
Then the elders shook their heads approvingly; but one answered
and said:
"Shall we take the herdsman's son as our equal? No!"
The name of the man who thus answered was Darvan, and his words
were pleasing to the elders.
But Morven spoke out:
"Of a truth, O councilors of kings! I look not to be an equal
with yourselves. Enough if I tend the gates of your palace, and
serve you as the son of Osslah may serve;" and he bowed his head
humbly as he spoke.
Then said the chief of the elders, for he was wiser than the
others, "But how wilt thou deliver us from the evil that is to
come? Doubtless the star hath informed thee of the service thou
canst render to us if we take thee into our palace, as well as
the ill that will fall on us if we refuse."
Morven answered meekly: "Surely, if thou acceptest thy servant,
the star will teach him that which may requite thee; but as yet
he knows only what he has uttered."
Then the sages bade him withdraw, and they communed with
themselves and they differed much; but though fierce men and
bold at the war cry of a human foe, they shuddered at the
prophecy of a star. So they resolved to take the son of Osslah,
and suffer him to keep the gate of the council-hall.
He heard their decree and towed his head, and went to the gate,
and sat down by it in silence.
And the sun went down in the west, and the first stats of the
twilight began to glimmer, when Morven started front his seat,
and a trembling appeared to seize his limbs. His lips foamed; an
agony and a fear possessed him; he writhed as a man whom the
spear of a foeman has pierced with a mortal wound, and suddenly
fell upon his face on the stony earth.
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