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Bible Science
Published in the Agnostic Journal London, England 7 October 1905 (pages 225-226)
". . . 'Tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature. Possess it entirely." Hamlet (Act i., 2).
In the year of our Lord 1432 there arose a grievous quarrel among the brethren over the number of teeth in the mouth of a horse. For thirteen days the disputation raged without ceasing. All the ancient books and chronicles were fetched out, and wonderful and ponderous erudition, such as was never before heard of in this region, was made manifest. At the beginning of the fourteenth day, a youthful friar of goodly bearing asked his learned superior for permission to add a word, and straightway, to the wonderment of the disputants, whose deep wisdom he sore vexed, he beseeched them to unbend in a manner coarse and unheard-of, and to look into the open mouth of a horse to find answer to their questionings. At this, their dignity being grievously hurt, they waxed exceedingly wroth; and, joining in a mighty uproar, they flew upon him and smote him from hip and thigh, and cast him out forthwith. For, said they, surely Satan hath tempted this bold neophyte to declare unholy and unheard-of ways of finding truth contrary to all the teachings of the fathers. After many days of more grievous strife the dove of peace sat on the assembly, and they, as one man, declaring the problem to be an everlasting mystery because of a grievous dearth of historical and theological evidence thereof, and so ordered the same to be writ down.
The above is an extract from the chronicle of an ancient monastery—but it is really more; for it is an extract from the very life history of that great unprogressive organization, the Christian Church. Wherever she became supreme, there Reason, like the young neophyte, was cast out forthwith; whenever a new idea arose, it was attributed to a Satanic snare; common-sense was declared unholy, and judgment an unheard-of way of seeking Truth, both contrary to all the teachings of the fathers and to the word of God; for Faith walked hand in hand with Ignorance, and Cruelty licked the leprous heel of Superstition.
And why? Because,, as long as the world was maintained in ignorance, as long as her eyes were blinded by outward power, and her mind cramped by inward fear, the Church could reign supreme. Ignorance, to her, spelt salvation, and knowledge whispered death; for, as R.G. Ingersoll rightly said: "Just in proportion that the human race has advanced the Church has lost power. There is no exception to this rule." And she knew this full well. "Believe or perish!" was her motto and her precept; and those who refused to believe and lick her festering sores, perished, and perished in the most horrible manner, for in one art alone did she attain perfection, and that one art was the art of torture.
"From the third to the thirteenth century, in Christian countries, instruments of torture were the only invention." But, in spite of the rack and the boot, the stake and the wheel, and a thousand other refinements of devilry, noble souls struggled onwards, and the rushlight of Science, though all but extinguished for a thousand years, yet flickering burnt, destined, one day, to burst forth into that glorious and resplendent sundawn which has, to-day, all but dried up the fœtid swamps and stagnant mires of those dark and dismal ages; putting Ignorance and Fear to flight, and opening the eyes of mankind to Truth, Liberty and Reason.
"Modern civilization," writes Huxley, "rests upon physical science; take away her gifts to our country, and our position among the leading nations of the world is gone to-morrow, for it is physical science that makes intelligence and moral energy stronger than brute force."
But the Church has never thought so, or rather has never dared to acknowledge that she has; and, thinking it wiser to leave such men alone, turns her attention to the poor heathen"; quietly picks to pieces their creeds, pointing out a fault here, and a mistake there, sweetly unconscious that she herself in doing so, is but taking one more step towards the brink of that dark precipice, called destruction.
A Christian writer remarks:—"The word Creator in English strictly means one who calls things into existence out of nothing. In this sense of the word, according to Hinduism, there is no creation. God is indeed called Sarva-Karia, 'maker of all'; but this does not mean that He is the Creator. No Hindu sect believes God to have created anything. According to the Naàya School, the paramanus, the atoms of the earth, water, fire, and air, gods, animals, and plants are all uncreated, self-existent and eternal . . . "
Here Hinduism and its conception of the Cosmos—whatever other faults it may possess—stands head and shoulders above that of its Christian antagonists; for it is based not only on a sound scientific theory, but on an immutable law of Nature, the law of the conservation of energy and matter, which lays down that neither energy nor matter can be created or destroyed, although their form may change. How grandly does this conception stand forth when contrasted with the puny and impossible Christian doctrine: "That God, infinite in power and wisdom, has always existed, and that the universe, and all that it contains, was called into being by Him out of nothing." But, to digress no further from our subject, let us now turn to the Bible, where we shall find that the first astonishing scientific argument it has to offer is that of the Creation.
This myth is far too well known to make it necessary here to enter into detail. The Almighty having physically rolled up his shirt sleeves, creates "the heaven and the earth" out of a pre-supposed nothing (Gen. i., 1), and this magnificent something is "without form and void" (Gen. i., 2); after which he manufactures "light" (Gen. i., 3, 5); a firmament (Gen. i., 7); and shouts to the earth to bring forth grass, and grass is brought forth (Gen. i., 11); but suddenly remembers he has forgotten to make the sun and the moon and the stars also, which he thereupon flings into space like a handful of small change (Gen. i., 16); and then setting to work like a forty horse-power donkey-engine, he creates everything in the fish line, from a sea-snail to a whale—detail! the latter not happening to be a fish—and in the fowl line, from a canary to a dodo (Gen. i., 20, 21); then creeping things and beasts, caterpillars and elephants, higgledy-piggeldy like a hog, blowing like a grampus, conflabberated, buffled, and flummosced, he bungles on, and in his own image—my friends, strike your head seventy-seven times seven on the ground—produces man (Gen. i., 27). "Thus the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." After which, as postscript comes, a second creation (Gen. ii., 4) rain (Gen. ii., 6); a second edition of man (Gen. ii., 7); also one of beasts and fowls (Gen. ii., 19); and last, but not least, Janet, her own sweet self (Gen. ii., 22), notwithstanding the fact that she had already been created.
But what a detail is this, whether a person has one birthday—creationday we mean—or two when compared to that momentous question: When did the Creation take place? Many students spent their lives in attempting to solve this problem of problems, but none succeeded until a great light arose, and Dr. John Lightfoot, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, declared, and proved, beyond all possible manner of doubt, that the world was created by the Trinity on October the 23rd, 4004 B.C., at 4 o'clock in the morning! So at 4 a.m. on the 23rd of October, 4004 B.C., this little world of ours came into existence, and on the 26th—hour not stated—the stars also; and from the amount of misery, crime, and cruelty, that the Lord has since been pleased to permit, it would not have been a bad thing for many of us, had it gone out of existence half an hour later, that is at 4:30 a.m., notwithstanding the fact that "God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good."
Thus had the splendid legend of antiquity been twisted into a farce by latter-day credulity, till such men as "Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton arose; and when their work was done the old theological conception of the universe was gone. 'The spacious firmament on high,' 'the crystalline spheres,' the Almighty enthroned upon 'the circle of the heavens,' and with his own hands, or with angels as his agents, keeping sun, moon, and planets in motion for the benefit of the earth, opening and closing the 'windows of heaven,' letting down upon the earth 'waters above the firmament,' setting his 'bow in the clouds,' hanging out 'signs and wonders,' hurling comets, casting forth lightnings to scare the wicked, and 'shaking the earth' in his wrath: all this has disappeared."
All this, which was borrowed from the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians, from Persia, Chaldea, and India; these old world myths, which we have learnt to despise, not through any fault of their own, but through the fault of an interested church who used them and abused them, forcing them down the throats of her subjects long after they had become unpalatable and indigestible to the age. Those:—
"Thoughts that great hearts once broke for, we Breathe cheaply in the common air."
Geography
The earth is known by actual measurement to be about 8,000 miles in diameter, to be spheroidal, etc., etc. And for these, and all other great natural discoveries, we have to thank Science, and in no way Christianity, whose followers have exerted every power possible to crush our scientific knowledge and scientific progress and scientific progress, enthroning in their place those infantine ideas contained in that sacred word of God, the Bible, in which the world is considered as a kind of flat plaque suspended in the infinite (Genesis i., 2), but it soon assumed a more definite shape, and is stated to have possessed corners. "And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth" (Revelation viii., 1). That it was not considered spheroidal is mentioned time after time. Christ himself saw all the kingdoms of the earth "from an exceeding high mountain" (Matthew iv., 8), which, impossible as it would have been even were the world as flat as a pan-cake, was infinitely more so seeing that it is a globe. The ends of the earth are also frequently mentioned (Isaiah xl., 28 and xli., 5, 9' xliii. 6; xlv., 22), which would not have been the case had these old writers considered it to have been of spherical form. Four winds blew upon it, from the four quarters of heaven (Jeremiah xlix., 36). It was stationary, and immovable (Psalms xciii., 1, and xvi., 10); below is Hell (Revelation xx., 13; Amos ix., 2); and somewhere above it was Heaven (Matthew xxviii., 2; Luke iii., 22; Amos ix., 2), and Heaven was separated from the terrestrial regions by a kind of crystalline dome or firmament (Genesis i., 6, 7; Psalms xix., 1; Daniel xii., 3; Job xxiv., 18; Ezekiel i., 22; x., 1). This firmament was supported on pillars (i. Samuel ii., 8; Job ix., 6; xxvi., 11), and possessed windows through which the rain fell (Genesis vii., 11; viii., 2; ii. Kings vii., 2; Isaiah xxiv., 18; Malachi iii., 10), for it separated the waters above from those on the earth (Genesis i., 7; Psalms cxlviii., 4). This extraordinary cosmos was in no way governed by natural laws, for fancy reigned supreme, and what was unseen was unknown, and what was unknown appertained to the mystic Jahveh, who could do what he liked, change rain into dust (Deuteronomy xxviii., 24), or dust into lice (Exodus viii., 16); withhold rain (ii. Chronicles vi., 26; Jeremiah iii., 3' Amos iv., 7; Zechariah xiv., 17); listen to people's prayers for it (i. Samuel xii., 17; i. Kings viii., 35, 36), and cause it to fall (i. Kings xviii., 1; Ezekiel xxxviii., 22). His chosen people, a horde of semi-civilized savages, were his only thought: what were the laws of Nature as compared to their wants; if a sea or river hindered their progress miraculously they were divided (Exodus xiv., 21; ii. Kings ii., 8, 14), if they were thirsty water flowed from the solid rock (Numbers xx., 8, 11), and if they were an hungered heavenly food shot from the skies (Exodus xvi., 14, 15). At times he would supply some special favourite with a wonderful and inexhaustible, if modest, dish (i. Kings xix., 5, 6; i. Kings xvii., 14, 16; ii. Kings iv., 4, 6); or calm a storm to enhance his, or their safety (Matthew viii., 24, 26); and walk on the waves (Matthew xiv., 22, 36); rise from the dead (Matthew xxviii., 2, 6); float up to heaven (Luke xxiv., 39, 51); to test their faith and establish their salvation. He would do more—for was he not the great God of Unreason—destroy the world by a flood (Genesis vii), or threaten to reduce it to ashes (Luke xvii., 29, 30); in his wrath he would shake the kingdoms of the earth (Isaiah xxviii., 11; Jeremiah x., 10; Joel iii., 16; Haggai i., 6), it would reel at his anger like a drunken man (Isaiah xxiv., 20); he would dry up the sea, and the rivers (Isaiah i., 2; li., 10; Ezekiel xxx., 12); cause the mountains to tremble, and cast them down (Habakkuk iii., to Zachariah xiv., 4; Ezekiel xxxviii., 20); nay more, he would turn the very world upside down (Job xii., 15; Isaiah xxiv., 1); despicable toy! empty out the seas, and the rivers (Isaiah xix., 5, 6); and ultimately in his frenzied fury upheave and break it all up (Job ix., 5, 12; Isaiah xxiv., 19; Psalms xviii., 7, 15).
Astronomy
Galileo and Copernicus knew a great deal more about the heavens than Jesus ever did, and Jahveh, his father, cannot be mentioned in the same breath with such men as Herschel and Ross. To justify our saying so, let us turn once more to the infallible book, Word of God, and cheque-book of his priests, and this is what we find:—
The sun was but a subordinate administration to the needs of the earth, and served to illuminate her as a candle lights a room. The world was the magnum opus, the sun, the moon, and stars but small attributes scattered in the firmament by the hand of God. The sun came into existence on the fourth day (Genesis i., 16), some twenty-four hours after the Almighty had seen the grass grow, and pronounced it "good"; it was made "to rule the day," and the lesser light, the moon, "to rule the night." He made the stars, also; mere specks of light that, on the opening of the sixth seal, were to fall down from on high. "And the stars of heaven fell upon the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind" (Revelation vi., 13).
The universe was measured out by God "with a span" (Isaiah xl., 12), and the heavens were stretched out by his almighty hand (Isaiah xliv., 24; xlv., 12; li., 13; Jeremiah li., 15; Zechariah xii., 1). They would open sometimes, and a vision of the beyond would appear (Genesis xxviii., 12); they would sing in joy (Isaiah xlix., 13); similarly, as in anger, the stars would fight against mankind (Judges v., 20); and display dire portents to the dismay of all (Jeremiah x., 2). "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and waves roaring" (Luke xxi., 25). The very air containing them was the habitation of the fiend, and the sporting-ground of his demons (Ephesians ii., 2); from whose dread powers mankind was only protected by the clanging of the holy church-bell. The end of the heavens was to be as wonderful as their beginning; for, as they had been measured with a span, and stretched out by the hand of God, so were they to be rended asunder (Isaiah lxiv., 1); rolled up as a scroll (Isaiah xxxiv., 4; Revelation vi., 14); and vanish like smoke (Isaiah li., 6).
The sun, as we have seen, was but the earth's lamp, and the moon her nightlight; they rose and set, revolving around the magnum opus. At times, the effulgent one would stand still, and look on it at the petty crimes of men (Joshua x., 13), bidden by man to do so: "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon" (Joshua x., 12); or would travel backwards along its course to guarantee the efficacy of a fig poultice: "And Hezekiah wept sore . . . . And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, what shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me? . . . And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz" (ii. Kings xx., 3-11; Isaiah xxxvi., 8).
Sometimes, again, the celestial bodies would burst forth into increased splendour, the light of the moon being as the light of the sun, and the brilliancy of the sun being increased seven-fold, "as the light of seven days" (Isaiah xxx., 26); but, usually, it was the reverse—the sun, the moon and the stars were more prone to frown than to blush; for Jahveh was a stern God, a God of wrath rather than a God of laughter. The doom of Babylon was an important event in the life history of the celestial constellations, "For the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine" (Isaiah xiii., 10); but perhaps not so important as we might think, as this turning down of the lamps of the heavens was almost as frequent as the turning down of the lamps of the earth (Isaiah lx., 19, 20; Ezekiel xxxii., 7, 8; Mark xiii., 24; xv., 33; Matthew xxiv., 29; Acts ii., 20). Sometimes the darkness was incomplete and distributed in mystic patches, as it was once in the land of Egypt; "And the Lord said unto Moses, stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings" (Exodus x., 21, 23). But generally it was opaque, horribly opaque, as it will be in the day when the Lord will come, "As a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up." "And we cannot altogether blame the moon for being confounded, and the sun for being ashamed" (Isaiah xxiv, 23) at the Lord's senseless destruction of earth, sun, moon, and the stars also, all of which he created in some 144 hours, pronouncing them to be "very good."
Such is biblical astronomy—a mass of myth, fable, and fiction; of wandering stars that point out the obscure birth-places of a carpenter's son (Matthew ii., 2, 9); of blood red moon (Revelation vi., 12); of mystic heavenly voices (Mark ix., 7); and of talking clouds (Exodus xxxiii., 9, 11; Numbers xii., 5, 6). Sancta simplicitas! forgive thou our unbelief!
Biology and Physiology
Man most certainly is a curious animal, and his alleged origin in no way belied his character. God scraped together a few handfuls of dust, and lo and behold, there was man (Genesis ii., 7); a rib extracted, and, "Abracadabra!" a woman stood smiling by his side (Genesis ii., 21, 22). These were our first parents, and, as the world in those days was not over-crowded, we are told they lived to quite abnormal ages (Genesis v.), evidently so that they might populate it (and prepare a good round holocaust for the flood). The human body was, in fact, entirely differently constituted. Now we should miss our dinner if we had to go without it, and a day or two without a sip of water would be more than a mere joke; but in those days it was nothing for an old man of eighty to walk up a bleak mountain and fast forty days on the top of it (Exodus xxxiv., 28), to inspect the hindquarters of the Deity (Exodus xxxiii., 23), to hew "tablets of stone" (Exodus xxxiv., I, 4), and to chisel ten commandments on them; and then, at the end of it all, to carry this load of paving stones to the bottom of the mountain. This was even a greater feat than that of Elijah, who, though he went without food for as long a period, had a better start, seeing that, instead of dining off the sight of the Lord's hindquarters, he took a good round meal of angels' food (I. Kings xix., 6-8); or even that of the divinity himself, who, at any rate, acknowledged that, after his economical menage, he was "an hungered" (Matthew iv., 2). But this ability of dispensing food was by no means the only peculiarity of the human body. Nowadays strength is usually to be found in the fitness of the biceps and other muscles; then, certain people carried it in the length of their hair. A certain gentleman of solar reputation was gifted this way (Judges xvi., 17), and, possessing greater strength than wisdom, he lost his eyesight with his locks (Judges xvi., 19, 20). A few other points worth noting, as regards the physiology of the human species, are—Death was unknown before Adam ate the pippin (Genesis iii., 3; I Corinthians vx., 21; Romans v., 12), but it soon made itself manifest under Jahveh and his bloodthirsty crew (Genesis vi., 5, 7; II. Chronicles vx., 7, 8, 20; I. Chronicles iv., 43; Numbers xxxi., 7, 9, 17 IS; Judges vi., 1, 5) in fact, not only did men resemble the proverbial cat that has nine lives, but dead men were known to wink the other eye (II. Kings xix., 35); and a valleyful of dry bones to come together, and live, and stand upon their feet—what a hunt there must have been for metatarsals!—"an exceeding great army" (Ezekiel xxxvii., 1-10); and graves to open, the dead they contained "went into the holy city, and appeared unto many" (Matthew xxvii., 52, 53). How pleased, in some cases, the many must have been! Incidentally, Enoch and Elijah never dies (Genesis v., 24; II. Kings ii., 11); Lazarus and Christ, etc., etc., rose from the dead (John xi., 44; Matthew xxviii.); Jonah for three days defied the digestive juices of a whale's belly (Johan i., 17); Moses described his own death (Deuteronomy xxxiv., 5, 6); and Lot's wife, instead of changing into carrion, changed into salt. As Birth is quite as natural as Death, so being born, in many cases according to the Bible, is as biblical dying. Adam never had a mother—and did he have a navel?—(Genesis i., 27; ii., 7); Eve's parents consisted of a rib (Genesis ii., 22); Ahaziah was tow years older than his own father (II. Kings viii., 26; II. Chronicles xxi., 19, 20; xxii., 1, 2); Joseph had two fathers (Matthew i., 16; Luke iii., 23) to make up for the lack of them in his son; but anon a virgin could become a mother (Matthew i., 22, 23); a son could be his own father (John x., 30); also as old as his own father (John i., 1, 14; iii., 16). But let us hurry on, for we are beginning to trespass on the domains of the most unphysiological body that ever blessed (?) this earth with his presence, "Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."
Some nineteen hundred years ago a Jewish girl, by name Mary—a female barber by repute—lived at Nazareth in Galilee. One day an angel called on her, and having seated himself on the "barber's chair"—which Messrs. Farmer and Henley inform us is a synonym of "strumpet," because common to all comers—said: "The Holy Ghost shall come for upon thee, and the power of the highest shall over-shadow thee" (Luke i., 28-35); and, if the Koran is to be believed, Gabriel—for that was the name of this angel—must have been a most deceitful young man, and very much of a type with a certain young hero of whom Boccaccio relates, "right pleasantly with joyaunce and jollity," for the result of this unexpected introduction was that, though still a virgin, Mary became pregnant (Matthew i., 18), and was placed, to say the least, in a awkward position with her mundane husband, Joseph the carpenter, who, humanly credulous of so untoward an occurrence, "was minded to put her away privily" (Matthew i., 19); but, after dreaming about angels and ghosts in a divine nightmare, was bidden by a heavenly hen not to consider his innocent darling as a mere mundane night bird, but as a celestial pigeon fancier, and ultimately changed his mind (Matthew i., 20). This Joseph in every way was a most suitable father (?) for his future son (?), the latter's remarkable deficiency in parentage being quite balanced by the formers' superabundance (Matthew i., 16; Luke iii., 21); and, as like produces like, these two phenomenal parents produced a most phenomenal child. They called him Jesus (Matthew i., 21), evidently because it had been predicted that he should be named Emmanuel (Matthew i., 23). His father, as we have seen, was the Holy Ghost, and yet he claimed regal descent through his other father, Joseph (Matthew i., 16). He did more. He claimed he was his own father (John x., 30); more still, that he was the creator of his mundane father himself—in other words, his grandfather (John i., 1, 14); but this was far too simple, for he went a step further still—or others did it for him—and asserted that he was not only God the Father, but God the Holy Ghost, and God the Son, all at the same time (I. John v., 7). Such are some of the assertions of this supreme corn-cutting-bunion-curer. His life in no belied his extraordinary nativity; for he could walk on water without sinking (Matthew xiv., 22-36) ride an ass and a colt at one and the same time (Matthew xxi., 7); see round the globe (Matthew iv., 8, 9); drive devils out of men (Mark i., 34; Luke viii., 2), and into pigs (Mark v., 2-13); jump to heaven without gravity affecting him in the least (Mark xvi., 19); descend into hell (Acts ii., 31; and the Apostles' Creed), and yet at the same time keep an appointment with a thief in paradise (Luke xxiii., 43). His body was a kind of walking pharmacopoeia; his spittle cured blindness sometimes when mixed with clay (John ix., 6), sometimes without (Mark vii., 33); his name drew devils into fits (Acts xvi., 18); and at his word the dead rose (Luke vii., 11, 17; John xi., 1-54); lepers were cleansed (Luke xvii., 12-19); the crooked became straight (Luke xiii., 10-21); and the paralysed took up their beds and walked (Matthew ix., 6, 7). As a doctor, this wonderful thaumaturgus completely eclipsed Esculapius, and has put Mother Seigel in the shade; his prescriptions were perfect, but he forgot to leave them behind him. Besides this, he could turn water into wine (John ii., 7-9); wine into blood (Mark xiv., 23, 24); bread into flesh (Mark xiv., 22); and a few sprats into a fishery (Matthew xv., 34-39; xiv., 17-21). He was altogether the most wonderful being and the most astounding personality that ever trod earth, or water. Ultimately, he died by being nailed to a cross (Matthew xxvii., 35), or by being hung on a tree (Acts v., 30)—some say a cabbage stalk—and to show his utter contempt at so ungodlike an ending, with feline promptness he rose again (Matthew xxviii., 1-6), and with a hypergymnastic spring vanished in the clouds (Luke xxiv., 51); where he is at present sitting on the right hand of God (Mark xvi., 19), girt round the paps with a girdle (Revelation i., 13), his hair wooly and white as snow, his eyes as flames of fire, and his feet like unto brass (Revelation i., 14, 15). There he sits, surrounded by thunder and lightning (Revelation iv., 5), glass seas, and beasts full of eyes (Revelation iv., 6), and 144,000 virginal elders all singing "Ta-ra-ra-ra-boom-de-aye." No, no! I mean, "As it were a new song" (Revelation xiv., 3). Before him lies a mystic book, written within, with advertisements on the back page, just like the A[gnostic]. J[ournal]. (Revelation v., 1), and sealed with seven seals. There he waits for the awful day when the stars like green figs will fall to the earth (Revelation vi., 13), when in his wrath he will cast "the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars"—Torreyites, etc.—into "the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone" (Revelation xxi., 8). "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen" (Revelation xxi., 21).
Pathology and Medicine
In all primitive societies pathology and medicine have been treated as a superstition, rather than as a science. A person falls ill, he is at once considered as possessed by the evil one; he is cured, the evil spirit has left him. This precept the Christian Church has ever buoyed up, considering—
To follow foolish precedents and wink With both our eyes, is easier than to think.
And these foolish precedents are found in that inspired work the Bible, where prayer is more mighty than physic (II. Chronicles xvi., 12); and where faith takes the place of the surgeon's scalpel (Acts xiv., 9, 10; iii., 16; Mark v., 34); where quackery of the most absurd kind is expounded; where leprosy is cleansed by a priest taking two birds, killing one in a vessel over running water, and then baking the living bird, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop, and dipping them into the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water, and Sprinkling "upon him that is to be cleansed from his leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose into the open held" (Leviticus xiv., 5-7). Who would attempt such a cure nowadays? Yet this is the very word of very God. All the birds that ever were, if killed over running water or not, would not cure a single leper, or add one single phalange to his fingerless hands. But, then, leprosy in those days seemed to have been an unusually extraordinary disease, curable by more ways than one, such as scrubbing the body seven times in the Jordan (II. Kings v., 14). This cure was connected with a particular form, that form of leprosy caught through greed of money—a disease that should be most prevalent at the present time (II. Kings v., 23-27). Another very infectious form was that caught whilst fumigating the Lord's house, when it generally attacked the forehead (II. Chronicles xxvi., 17-20). A little later on, touching seems to have supplanted wringing birds' necks and scrubbing, as an efficient cure (Matthew viii., 3; Mark i., 41; Luke v., 13). Touching was also considered an estimable cure for a disease known as "the king's evil." William the Third is said to have touched a patient, saying to him, "God give you better health and more sense." And most physicians, I think, would say the same to-day, if a toeless leper appeared and said, "Touch me, so that my flesh may come again like unto the flesh of a little child." Sometimes the mere act of speaking cured this incurable disease. Jesus Christus Thaumaturgus by word alone was successful enough to cleanse Len at one appointment (Luke xvii., 13, 14), which more than usual successful treatment the Roman "Lancet" and the Grecian "Medical Times" never deigned to notice. Contemptible jealousy! Jeremiah, evidently a leading light in the medical world, pronounced many medicines as useless (Jeremiah xlvi., 11) against God-inflicted illnesses, perhaps such as are described in I. Samuel v., 8, 9, which ultimately, however, were cured in quite an unorthodox manner (I. Samuel vi., 5). In fact, medical science in those days was altogether in a much more advanced state than it is now. Lifting people up cured their fever (Mark i., 31); sight was restored by touch (Mark viii., 23-25); severed ears flew back to their original place, or regrew like a lizard's tail (Luke xxii., 5). Dumbness was attributed to a non-belief in angels (Luke i., 7, 13, 20), and sometimes curable by a gynecological event (Luke i., 20, 64), though frequently it was attributed to devils, as was blindness, epilepsy, and lunacy (Matthew ix., 32, 33; xii., 22' xvii., 14, 18; Luke ix., 39-42). The operation of castration would then frequently save the life of the soul, just as now trepanning will frequently save the life of the body (Matthew v., 28-30; xix., 12). Old rags were a rare (!) cure (Mark v. 25-30). Death was in those days a curable disease, just as the mumps are now (Matthew xxvii., 51, 52; Luke viii., 53-55; John xi., 44, etc., etc.). Pathology was Demonology, and Medicine mere Superstition.
I do not intend here to go dung-plunging in the Word of God, after the fescennine revulsions of pathic lust and Sodomistic vice incidents fit only for a medical work, of most limited circulation. All I will say is, that in my excursions through the fœtid duets of the Book of Books, casual observance has pointed me out no fewer than 183 chapters which, if published—any separate one, that is to say—in any public work, would not be tolerated for one minute, much less for two thousand years. I believe there are 929 chapters in the Bible. Thus we have one out of every five unfit for public perusal, and the number of feculent verses these chapters contain probably runs well into a four figure sum.
Botany
As we sail round the world's history, and drink deep of the lore of the past as well as of that of the present, one thing pre-eminently strikes us, for it matters little where the bark of knowledge may ride, and it is this—that where Ignorance reigns, her subjects grovel in the fantastic, and wallow deep in the grotesque; and even where enlightenment has shed her rays of a "larger hope," nations, like individuals, look back on the fairy tales of their youth, not only with a far-off pleasure, but with a pleasure not unmixed with reverence. The romantic ever appeals to the heart of man; it is humdrum enough—petty toils and troubles fill our lives, and our days are of sighs rather than of laughter; but no so with the past. Its toils and tears have vanished in the mist of ages, radiant form appears robed in all the ideals of the yearning present; and thus as the future is dark and mystic, so the past is bright and illusive. Alone over the present broods the monotony of life, yet the present but yesterday was the yearning future, and to-morrow will be the alluring past.
As the Druids had their sacred groves, and as the Brahmas had their sacred Kadamba or Jámbu tree, so the Israelites had their own sacred botany, and the same breeze that rustled through the oaks of Mona rustles through the pages of God's holy word. The word of God, however, is true, and whosoever shall change one jot of it shall have his name erased from the great book, "the book of life" (Revelation xxii., 19). And as the Bible ends with the mention of this mystic volume, so does it begin with the Mention of a most mystic tree, "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis ii., 9). Its fruits were not so large as elephants, as the mystic Jámbu trees were supposed to be, but still they were wonderful enough; for they contained the concentrated essence of an ever-greedy and fiery hell, as well as that of death (Romans v., 12, 17, 18, 19; I. Corinthians xv., 21, 22; Genesis ii., 17). It grew in the midst of a beautiful garden with another mystic tree, "the tree of life" (Genesis ii., 9). This garden was watered by four rivers; it was a perfect El dorado. All who inhabited it lived in contentment, happiness, and peace, as well as in ignorance of good and evil; in other words, it was a kind of gilded Earlswood. Death was unknown, but it lurked like an asp in the golden fruit, which "was good for food," and "pleasant to the eyes," and "a tree to be desired to make one wise" (Genesis iii., 6). One small bite, and illusion is disillusionized. The blush of innocence fled from the cheeks of our first parents, and "they knew that they were naked," and their eyes were opened, and they were "as gods knowing good and evil" (Genesis iii., 7, 5). The lion roared, and ceased eating grass (Genesis i., 30); the wolf would no longer lie down with the lamb (Romans v., 12); and the serpent lost his legs, and ate dust (Genesis iii., 14). Sorrow, disease, sickness, and death entered the world (Genesis iii., 17, 3). Birth became an agony (verse 16), life a toil (verse 19), and death a horror (verse 19).
The prince "of many thronèd powers, that led the embattled seraphim to war," warmed his hands as the human fuel fed the greedy flames of the bottomless pit, and all because of a pippin. "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me gave me of the tree, and I did eat"; or was it a custard apple, as fateful and as pippy as the pomegranate of Proserpine of old? However, Elohim, the gods, became frightened. "Behold the man is become as one of us to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live for ever." Poor old Elohim! What have you done with your omnipotence? So, to overcome this terrible catastrophe of living for ever—which originally seems to have been the normal state of man, and the immortal one never changes his mind—he made them each a pair of trousers (Genesis iii., 21), and chased his poor mortal inventions out of the Garden of Eden, to live in a land of thorns and thistles (Genesis iii., 24, 18). But, evidently to prevent all further contingencies, the "tree of life" was transplanted, and we next find it peacefully growing "in the midst of the paradise of God" (Revelation ii., 7); the streets of which are of pure gold, "as it were transparent glass" (Revelation xxi., 21). There it grows, with the River of Life, apparently, flowing through its midst, yielding twelve manner of fruits monthly; "and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations" (Revelation xxii., 1, 2). "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie" (Revelation xxii., 14, 15).
Besides these magic trees, there were other botanical freaks, such as magic grass that needed neither sunshine or rain to make it grow (Genesis i., 11, 16, and Genesis ii. 5, 6); the gourd of Jonah, for which "God prepared a worm . . . and it smote the gourd that it withered . . . which came up in a night, and perished in a night" (Jonah iv., 6-10); the fig-tree, which also withered, not on account of worms, but because of the Lamb's bad language (Mark xi., 13; Matthew xxi., 19); the burning bush that wouldn't burn (Exodus iii., 2); and the rod of Aaron of serpentinous renown (Exodus iv., 4, 17).
Zoology
The first thing that strikes us, on reading the account of the animal creation in the "Blessed Word," is the extraordinary bran-tub antics the Almighty must have gone through to produce it. Birds and fishes were produced at the same time, and a whale or so jumbled up with them (Genesis i., 20, 21), although the mammalia were not created till the next day; bats were mixed up with fowls (Leviticus xi., 19) the cony and hare chewed the cud (Leviticus xi., 5, 6); and the carnivora lived on grass (Genesis i, 30). Shortly after the creation all the zoological world gathered round the supreme animal, Adam, who was the living image of the supreme God (Jah), and, no doubt, many of his 930 years must have been expended in naming them. Waiting for the arrival of the 113 species of snails, which are only found in the Madeira Islands, must have been an exceedingly tedious job, and the deep sleep that afterwards fell on him is accountable easily enough when it is taken into consideration that he must have named some 1,600 mammalia, 12,500 birds, 600 reptiles, and 1,000,000 or more inferior creatures and anaimalculæ. Mr. Foote (from whom I take these numbers) suggests that the South American sloth must have started towards Eden several years before the creation (Genesis ii., 20). Amongst the zoological monstrosities may be classed the four-footed birds (Leviticus xi., 20); also four-footed beetles and bald locusts (Leviticus xi., 21-23). In those days animal instinct was truly wonderful. Some fishes were famous at collecting submerged coin (Genesis ix., 5); and cattle were penitent. "Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. . . . And God saw their works that they turned from their evil ways; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not" (Jonah iii., 8-10). So wrote the man who was a bit of a zoologist himself, having resided three days' in a whale's belly (Jonah i., 17), and praying in this tabernacle so fervently that the whale was struck with a violent nausea, and vomited him up on the dry land (Jonah ii., 10). This story, incredulous as it may first appear to the half-educated, is not really so, when we consider that its truth was vouchsafed by the blessed Lamb, who taketh away the sins of the world (Matthew ii., 40). Other points may still be observed—the docility of the animals that inhabited the ark (Genesis vii., 2, 3, 13-15); the extraordinary sexual perversion of Laban's flocks by Jacob, ancestor of the Lamb, who was, however, without blemish (Genesis xxx., 37, 42); the generative propensities of dust (Exodus viii., 16-19), and the magical prolificness of frogs (Exodus viii., 6, 7); the vitality of Egyptian horses and cattle (Exodus ix., 3, 6; xiii., 15; xiv., 9, 27, 28); the pugnacity of hornets (Exodus xxviii., 28); the loquacity of asses (Numbers xxii., 27, 28); the curativity of brazen snakes (Numbers xxi., 9); the sagacity of ravens (I. Kings xvii., 6); the lunacy of pigs (Mark v., 2-13, etc.); the piety of cattle (Revelation v., 14); and the amativeness of a certain blessed lamb (Revelation xix., 7), whose father was a dove (Matthew iii., 16; Luke iii., 22; John i., 32), and, like the Jovian swan, had a weakness for the fair sex. This lamb is at perpetual enmity with a certain talkative snake (Genesis iii., 1), which is as garrulous as Manu's fish, or Balaam's ass.
The above animals, always excepting the Blessed Lamb, are more or less those with which we are accustomed to meet. The following are not so, and belong to the fabulous lands of myth and legend:—
The unicorn, one of the supporters of our national arms, seems to have been quite a favourite. Job greatly doubts his docility, doubting whether he would "abide by thy crib," and considers that he would "harrow the valleys after thee" (Job xxxix., 9-11). We also find mention of this truculent creature in Deuteronomy xxxiii., 17; Numbers xxiii., 22; Psalms xxii., 21; xxix., 6; and Isaiah xxxiv., 7. The behemoth was another pet of Job's, who lived on grass, "and his force is in the navel of his belly" (Job xl., 15, 16). Still another of his pets was the leviathan. "Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? . . . His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal . . . Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. . . . He maketh the deep to boil like a pot; he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment" (Job xli., 1, 15, 19, 31). Bede's speculations regarding the leviathan are as follows: "Some say that the earth contains the animal leviathan, and that he holds his tail after a fashion of his own, so that it is sometimes scorched by the sun, whereupon he strives to get hold of the sun, and so the earth is shaken by the motion of his indignation; he drinks in also, at times, such huge masses of the waves than when he belches them forth all the seas feel their effect." Poor Noah, what a job he must have had in the ark with him! That venerable gentleman must have also experienced some trouble in catching the fiery serpents (Numbers xxi., 6; Deuteronomy viii., 15) and winged snakes (Isaiah xxx., 6). The origin of these last was as follows: "out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent" (Isaiah xiv., 29). This brings a new animal on the scene, quite one of the most extraordinary, the cockatrice. This animal was a serpent hatched from the egg of a cock—very rare. Mention is made of it in Isaiah xi., 8; xiv., 29; lix., 5; and Jeremiah viii., 17. In the Revised Version it is called Basilisk. Discussing the cockatrice of Scripture, the English Franciscan Bartholomew tells us: "He drieth and burneth leaves with his touch, and he is of so great venom and perilous that he slayeth and wasteth him that nighteth him without tarrying; and yet the weasel overcometh him, for the biting of the weasel is death to the cockatrice. Nevertheless, the biting of the cockatrice is death to the weasel if the weasel eat not rue before. And though the cockatrice be venomous without remedy while he is alive, yet he looseth all the malice when he is burnt to ashes. His ashes be accounted profitable in working alchemy, and, namely, in burning and changing of metals.
Now for the dragon. "It shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls" (Isaiah xxxiv., 13). "The young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet" (Psalm xci., 13). "Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons" (Psalm cxlviii., 7). "The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen" (Isaiah xliii., 20). "And the wild asses did stand in the high places; they snuffed up the wind like dragons" (Jeremiah xiv., 6). "Therefore I will wail and howl. I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls" (Micah i., 8). "I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls" (Job xxx., 29); also Deuteronomy xxxii., 33; Psalms xliv., 19; lxxiv., 13; Isaiah xxvii., 1; li., 9; xiii., 22; xxxiv., 13;xxxv., 7; Jeremiah ix., 11; x., 22; xlix., 33; li., 34, 37; Ezekiel xxix., 3; Malachi i., 3; Revelation xii., 3, 4, 7, 9, 13, 16, 17; xiii., 2, 4, 11; xvi., 13; xx., 2). What a lot of dragons there must have been! Bartholomew tells us regarding dragons:—"The dragon is most greatest of all serpents, and oft he is drawn out of his den and riseth up into the air, and the air is moved by him, and also the sea swelleth against his venom, and he hath a crest, and reareth his tongue, and hath teeth like a saw, and hath strength, and not only in teeth but in tails, and grieveth with biting and with stinging. Whom he findeth he slayeth. Oft four or five of them fasten their tails together and rear up their heads, and sail over the sea to get good meat. Between elephants and dragons is everlasting fighting; for the dragon with his tail spanneth the elephant, and the elephant with his nose throweth down the dragon. . . . The cause why the dragon desireth his blood is the coldness thereof, by the which the dragon desireth to cool himself. Jerome saith that the dragon is a full thirsty beast, insomuch that he openeth his mouth against the wind to quench the burning of his thirst in that wise. Therefore, when he seeth ships in great wind he flieth against the sail to take the cold wind, and overthroweth the ship." More trouble for Noah; but his paternal heart must have been sorely rent when the satyrs came along to take up their abode in the ark, for he was a family man; and, if we are to believe the classics, these satyrs were gentlemen of most uncouth behaviours, and quite unfit companions for Mrs. Noah, and Mrs. Shem, and Mrs. Ham, and Mrs. Japeth. The old man himself, after his voyage, took to drink. Who can tell? But we must not scandalize! (Isaiah xxxiv., 14). "Owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there" (Isaiah xiii., 21).
Before we bring this chapter of biblical zoology to a close, there still remains a class of animals to deal with—viz., the heavenly beasts. Ezekiel, on one occasion, beheld an exceedingly extraordinary beast, or, rather, "four living creatures," who looked like men, had four faces, calves' feet, men's hands, wings, "and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass." "As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion . . . the face of an ox the face of an eagle" (Ezekiel i., 3-10). A very similar beast is mentioned in Ezekiel x., 12-14, whose whole body and back and hands and wings "were full of eyes round about." Daniel, another seer, saw a somewhat similar set of creatures, the first like a lion, with plucked eagle's wings, standing on its feet, "and a man's heart was given to it"; the second like a bear, "and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it"; the third like a four-headed leopard, with four wings; and the fourth, "dreadful and terrible," a stamping monster, with ten horns and teeth of iron (Daniel vii., 4-7). Four other well-known beasts were those four which prowled round about their creator's throne, saying, without ceasing, "Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." They look like a man, a calf, a lion, and a flying eagle, and are full of eyes within (Revelation iv., 6-10). We have just noted a four-headed leopard; now we have to classify in this list a seven-headed one, "having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his ten horns ten crowns" (Revelation xiii., 1, 2). A queer kind of locust also seemed to inhabit the celestial regions. They were like war-horses, wearing gold crowns, with men's faces, and women's hair, "and their teeth were as the teeth of lions." They had wings, and tails like scorpions. "The sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots . . . and their power was to hurt men five months" (Revelation ix., 7-10). And last but not least, "I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth" (Revelation v., 6).
Such is biblical zoology, and such is biblical science. It gave the worlds a wrong conception of the creation (Genesis i., ii.); a wrong idea of the evolution of man (Genesis i., 27); an unscientific origin of languages (Genesis xi., 6-9). It forced down the throats of men, long after they had outgrown their mental childhood, universal floods (Genesis vii., 19); visible noises (Exodus xx., 18); inflammable waters (I. Kings xviii., 33, 38). It expected them to believe that a culprit could be detected by casting lots (Jonah i., 4-15); that mysterious hands wrote on plaster (Daniel v., 5); that iron floated (II. Kings vi., 5, 6); that seas separated when a holy twig was waved over them (Exodus xiv., 20, 22); that boats could endure forty years' hard wear without wearing out (Deuteronomy xxix., 5); and that rivers could be changed into blood (Exodus vii., 20, 22). And it taught that God, the almighty, the Omniscient, the Infinite, the Eternal, walked (Genesis iii., 8), talked (Deuteronomy v., 24), smelled (Genesis viii., 21), worked (Genesis ii., 2), rested (Genesis ii., 2), repented (Genesis vi., 6), sat (Psalms xciv., 1), flew (II. Samuel xxii., 11), laughed (Psalms xxxvii., 13), cursed (Genesis viii., 21), winked (Acts xvii., 30), and spued (Revelation iii., 16) etc., etc.
Omne ignotum pro magnifico—whatever is unknown is held to be magnificent. So with the Bible—unknown, it is the Word of God; known, the Word of Man; as former, divine; as latter, very, very human.
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