Chapter II (5)

Further illustration of this may be found even in Europe, where such phenomena are, comparatively speaking, extremely rare. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are more frequent and more destructive in Italy, and in the Spanish and Portuguese peninsula, than in any other of the great countries; and it is precisely there that superstition is most rife, and the superstitious classes most powerful. Those were the countries where the clergy first established their authority, where the worst corruptions of Christianity took place, and where superstition has during the longest period retained the firmest hold. To this may be added another circumstance, indicative of the connexion between these physical phenomena and the predominance of the imagination. Speaking generally, the fine arts are addressed more to the imagination; the sciences to the intellect.[231] Now it is remarkable, that all the greatest painters, and nearly all the greatest sculptors, modern Europe has possessed, have been produced by the Italian and Spanish peninsulas. In regard to science, Italy has no doubt had several men of conspicuous ability; but their numbers are out of all proportion small when compared with her artists and poets. As to Spain and Portugal, the literature of those two countries is eminently poetic, and from their schools have proceeded some of the greatest painters the world has ever seen. On the other hand, the purely reasoning faculties have been neglected, and the whole Peninsula, from the earliest period to the present time, does not supply to the history of the natural sciences a single name of the highest merit; not one man whose works form an epoch in the progress of European knowledge.[232]

[231] The greatest men in science, and in fact all very great men, have
no doubt been remarkable for the powers of their imagination. But
in art the imagination plays a far more conspicuous part than in
science; and this is what I mean to express by the proposition in
the text. Sir David Brewster, indeed, thinks that Newton was
deficient in imagination: 'the weakness of his imaginative
powers.' _Brewster's Life of Newton_, 1855, vol. ii. p. 133. It
is impossible to discuss so large a question in a note; but to my
apprehension, no poet, except Dante and Shakespeare, ever had an
imagination more soaring and more audacious than that possessed
by Sir Isaac Newton.

[232] The remarks made by Mr. Ticknor on the absence of science in
Spain, might be extended even further than he has done. See
_Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature_, vol. iii. pp. 222,
223. He says, p. 237, that in 1771, the University of Salamanca
being urged to teach the physical sciences, replied, 'Newton
teaches nothing that would make a good logician or metaphysician,
and Gassendi and Descartes do not agree so well with revealed
truth as Aristotle does.'

The manner in which the Aspects of Nature, when they are very threatening, stimulate the imagination,[233] and by encouraging superstition discourage knowledge, may be made still more apparent by one or two additional facts. Among an ignorant people, there is a direct tendency to ascribe all serious dangers to supernatural intervention; and a strong religious sentiment being thus aroused,[234] it constantly happens, not only that the danger is submitted to, but that it is actually worshipped. This is the case with some of the Hindus in the forest of Malabar;[235] and many similar instances will occur to whoever has studied the condition of barbarous tribes.[236] Indeed, so far is this carried, that in some countries the inhabitants, from feelings of reverential fear, refuse to destroy wild-beasts and noxious reptiles; the mischief these animals inflict being the cause of the impunity they enjoy.[237]

[233] In _Asiatic Researches_, vol. vi. pp. 35, 36, there is a good
instance of an earthquake giving rise to a theological fiction.
See also vol. i. pp. 154-157; and compare _Coleman's Mythology of
the Hindus_, p. 17.

[234] See for example, _Asiatic Researches_, vol. iv. pp. 56, 57, vol.
vii. p. 94; and the effect produced by a volcano, in _Journal of
Geograph. Society_, vol. v. p. 388. See also vol. xx. p. 8, and a
practical recognition of the principle by Sextus Empiricus, in
_Tennemann's Geschichte der Philosophie_, vol. i. p. 292. Compare
the use the clergy made of a volcanic eruption in Iceland
(_Wheaton's History of the Northmen_, p. 42); and see further
_Raffles' History of Java_, vol. i. pp. 29, 274, and _Tschudi's
Peru_, pp. 64, 167, 171.

[235] The Hindus in the Iruari forests, says Mr. Edye, 'worship and
respect everything from which they apprehend danger.' _Edye on the
Coast of Malabar_, in _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. ii.
p. 337.

[236] Dr. Prichard (_Physical History_, vol. iv. p. 501) says 'The tiger
is worshipped by the Hajin tribe in the vicinity of the Garrows
or Garrudus.' Compare _Transactions of Asiatic Society_, vol. iii.
p. 66. Among the Garrows themselves, this feeling is so strong,
that 'the tiger's nose strung round a woman's neck is considered
as a great preservative in childbirth.' _Coleman's Mythology of
the Hindus_, p. 321. The Seiks have a curious superstition
respecting wounds inflicted by tigers (_Burne's Bokhara_, 1834,
vol. iii. p. 140); and the Malasir believe that these animals are
sent as a punishment for irreligion. _Buchanan's Journey through
the Mysore_, vol. ii. p. 385.

[237] The inhabitants of Sumatra are, for superstitious reasons, most
unwilling to destroy tigers, though they commit frightful
ravages. _Marsden's History of Sumatra_, pp. 149, 254. The
Russian account of the Kamtschatkans says, 'besides the
above-mentioned gods, they pay a religious regard to several
animals from which they apprehend danger.' _Grieve's History of
Kamtschatka_, p. 205. Bruce mentions that in Abyssinia, hyænas
are considered 'enchanters' and the inhabitants 'will not touch
the skin of a hyæna till it has been prayed over and exorcised by
a priest.' _Murray's Life of Bruce_, p. 472. Allied to this, is
the respect paid to bears (_Erman's Siberia_, vol. i. p. 492,
vol. ii. pp. 42, 43); also the extensively-diffused worship of
the serpent, whose wily movements are well calculated to inspire
fear, and therefore rouse the religious feelings. The danger
apprehended from noxious reptiles is connected with the Dews of
the Zendavesta. See _Matter's Histoire du Gnosticisme_, vol. i.
p. 380, Paris, 1828.

It is in this way, that the old tropical civilizations had to struggle with innumerable difficulties unknown to the temperate zone, where European civilization has long flourished. The devastations of animals hostile to man, the ravages of hurricanes, tempests, earthquakes,[238] and similar perils, constantly pressed upon them, and affected the tone of their national character. For the mere loss of life was the smallest part of the inconvenience. The real mischief was, that there were engendered in the mind, associations which made the imagination predominate over the understanding; which infused into the people a spirit of reverence instead of a spirit of inquiry; and which encouraged a disposition to neglect the investigation of natural causes, and ascribe events to the operation of supernatural ones.

[238] To give one instance of the extent to which these operate, it may
be mentioned, that in 1815 an earthquake and volcanic eruption
broke forth in Sumbawa, which shook the ground 'through an area
of 1,000 miles in circumference,' and the detonations of which
were heard at a distance of 970 geographical miles. _Somerville's
Connexion of the Physical Sciences_, p. 283; _Hitchcock's
Religion of Geology_, p. 190; _Low's Sarawak_, p. 10; _Bakewell's
Geology_, p. 438.

Everything we know of those countries proves how active this tendency must have been. With extremely few exceptions, health is more precarious, and disease more common, in tropical climates than in temperate ones. Now, it has been often observed, and indeed is very obvious, that the fear of death makes men more prone to seek supernatural aid than they would otherwise be. So complete is our ignorance respecting another life, that it is no wonder if even the stoutest heart should quail at the sudden approach of that dark and untried future. On this subject the reason is perfectly silent; the imagination, therefore, is uncontrolled. The operation of natural causes being brought to an end, supernatural causes are supposed to begin. Hence it is, that whatever increases in any country the amount of dangerous disease, has an immediate tendency to strengthen superstition, and aggrandize the imagination at the expense of the understanding. This principle is so universal, that, in every part of the world, the vulgar ascribe to the intervention of the Deity those diseases which are peculiarly fatal, and especially those which have a sudden and mysterious appearance. In Europe it used to be believed that every pestilence was a manifestation of the divine anger;[239] and this opinion, though it has long been dying away, is by no means extinct, even in the most civilized countries.[240] Superstition of this kind will of course be strongest, either where medical knowledge is most backward, or where disease is most abundant. In countries where both these conditions are fulfilled, the superstition is supreme; and even where only one of the conditions exists, the tendency is so irresistible, that, I believe, there are no barbarous people who do not ascribe to their good or evil deities, not only extraordinary diseases, but even many of the ordinary ones to which they are liable.[241]

[239] In the sixteenth century, 'Les différentes sectes s'accordèrent
néanmoins à regarder les maladies graves et dangereuses comme un
effet immédiat de la puissance divine; idée que Fernel contribua
encore à répandre davantage. On trouve dans Paré plusieurs
passages de la Bible, cités pour prouver que la colère de Dieu
est la seule cause de la peste, qu'elle suffit pour provoquer ce
fléau, et que sans elle les causes éloignées ne sauraient agir.'
_Sprengel_, _Histoire de la Médecine_, vol. iii. p. 112. The same
learned writer says of the Middle Ages (vol. ii. p. 372),
'D'après l'esprit généralement répandu dans ces siècles de
barbarie, on croyait la lèpre envoyée d'une manière immédiate par
Dieu.' See also pp. 145, 346, 431. Bishop Heber says that the
Hindus deprive lepers of caste and of the right of possessing
property, because they are objects of 'Heaven's wrath.' _Heber's
Journey through India_, vol. ii. p. 330. On the Jewish opinion,
see _Le Clerc_, _Bibliothèque Universelle_, vol. iv. p. 402,
Amsterdam, 1702. And as to the early Christians, see _Maury_,
_Légendes Pieuses_, p. 68, Paris, 1843: though M. Maury ascribes
to 'les idées orientales reçues par le christianisme,' what is
due to the operation of a much wider principle.

[240] Under the influence of the inductive philosophy, the theological
theory of disease was seriously weakened before the middle of the
seventeenth century; and by the middle, or at all events the
latter half, of the eighteenth century, it had lost all its
partisans among scientific men. At present it still lingers on
among the vulgar; and traces of it may be found in the writings
of the clergy, and in the works of other persons little
acquainted with physical knowledge. When the cholera broke out in
England, attempts were made to revive the old notion; but the
spirit of the age was too strong for such efforts to succeed; and
it may be safely predicted that men will never return to their
former opinions, unless they first return to their former
ignorance. As a specimen of the ideas which the cholera tended to
excite, and of their antagonism to all scientific investigation,
I may refer to a letter written in 1832 by Mrs. Grant, a woman of
some accomplishments, and not devoid of influence
(_Correspondence of Mrs. Grant_, London, 1844, vol. iii. pp. 216,
217), where she states that 'it appears to me great presumption
to indulge so much as people do in speculation and conjecture
about a disease so evidently a peculiar infliction, and different
from all other modes of suffering hitherto known.' This desire to
limit human speculation is precisely the feeling which long
retained Europe in darkness; since it effectually prevented those
free inquiries to which we are indebted for all the real
knowledge we possess. The doubts of Boyle upon this subject
supply a curious instance of the transitory state through which
the mind was passing in the seventeenth century, and by which the
way was prepared for the great liberating movement of the next
age. Boyle, after stating both sides of the question, namely, the
theological and the scientific, adds, 'and it is the less likely
that these sweeping and contagious maladies should be always sent
for the punishment of impious men, because I remember to have
read in good authors, that as some plagues destroyed both men and
beasts, so some other did peculiarly destroy brute animals of
very little consideration or use to men, as cats,' &c.

'Upon these and the like reasons, I have sometimes suspected that
in the controversy about the origin of the plague, namely,
whether it be natural or supernatural, neither of the contending
parties is altogether in the right; since it is very possible
that some pestilences may not break forth without an
extraordinary, though perhaps not immediate, interposition of
Almighty God, provoked by the sins of men; and yet other plagues
may be produced by a tragical concourse of merely natural
causes.' _Discourse on the Air_, in _Boyle's Works_, vol. iv. pp.
288, 289. '_Neither of the contending parties is altogether in
the right!_'--an instructive passage towards understanding the
compromising spirit of the seventeenth century; standing midway,
as it did, between the credulity of the sixteenth, and the
scepticism of the eighteenth.

[241] To the historian of the human mind, the whole question is so full
of interest, that I shall refer in this note to all the evidence
I have been able to collect: and whoever will compare the
following passages may satisfy himself that there is in every
part of the world an intimate relation between ignorance
respecting the nature and proper treatment of a disease, and the
belief that such disease is caused by supernatural power, and is
to be cured by it. _Burton's Sindh_, p. 146, London, 1851;
_Ellis's Polynesian Researches_, vol. i. p. 395, vol. iii. pp.
36, 41, vol. iv. pp. 293, 334, 375; _Cullen's Works_, Edinb.
1827, vol. ii. pp. 414, 434; _Esquirol_, _Maladies Mentales_,
vol. i. pp. 274, 482; _Cabanis_, _Rapports du Physique et du
Moral_, p. 277; _Volney_, _Voyage en Syrie_, vol. i. p. 426;
_Turner's Embassy to Tibet_, p. 104; _Syme's Embassy to Ava_,
vol. ii. p. 211; _Ellis's Tour through Hawaii_, pp. 282, 283,
332, 333; _Renouard_, _Histoire de la Médecine_, vol. i. p. 398;
_Broussais_, _Examen des Doctrines Médicales_, vol. i. pp. 261,
262; _Grote's History of Greece_, vol. i. p. 485 (compare p. 251,
and vol. vi. p. 213); _Grieve's History of Kamtschatka_, p. 217;
_Journal of Statist. Soc._ vol. x. p. 10; _Buchanan's North
American Indians_, pp. 256, 257; _Halkett's North American
Indians_, pp. 36, 37, 388, 393, 394; _Catlin's North American
Indians_, vol. i. pp. 35-41; _Briggs on the Aboriginal Tribes of
India_, in _Report of Brit. Assoc. for 1850_, p. 172;
_Transactions of Soc. of Bombay_, vol. ii. p. 30; _Percival's
Ceylon_, p. 201; _Buchanan's Journey through the Mysore_, vol.
ii. pp. 27, 152, 286, 528, vol. iii. pp. 23, 188, 253 (so, too,
M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, _Anomalies de l'Organization_, vol.
iii. p. 380, says that when we were quite ignorant of the cause
of monstrous births, the phenomenon was ascribed to the
Deity,--'de là aussi l'intervention supposée de la divinité;' and
for an exact verification of this, compare _Burdach_, _Traité de
Physiologie_, vol. ii. p. 247, with _Journal of Geog. Soc._ vol.
xvi. p. 113); _Ellis's History of Madagascar_, vol. i. pp. 224,
225; _Prichard's Physical History_, vol. i. p. 207, vol. v. p.
492; _Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. iii. p. 230, vol. iv. p.
158; _Asiatic Researches_, vol. iii. pp. 29, 156, vol. iv. pp.
56, 58, 74, vol. xvi. pp. 215, 280; _Neander's History of the
Church_, vol. iii. p. 119; _Crawfurd's History of the Indian
Archipelago_, vol. i. p. 328; _Low's Sarawak_, pp. 174, 261;
_Cook's Voyages_, vol. i. p. 229; _Mariner's Tonga Islands_, vol.
i. pp. 194, 350-360, 374, 438, vol. ii. pp. 172, 230; _Huc's
Travels in Tartary and Thibet_, vol. i. pp. 74-77; _Richardson's
Travels in the Sahara_, vol. i. p. 27; _M'Culloh's Researches_,
p. 105; _Journal of Geog. Soc._ vol. i. p. 41, vol. iv. p. 260,
vol. xiv. p. 37. And in regard to Europe, compare _Spence_,
_Origin of the Laws of Europe_, p. 322; _Turner's Hist. of
England_, vol. iii. p. 443; _Phillips on Scrofula_, p. 255;
_Otter's Life of Clarke_, vol. i. pp. 265, 266, which may be
illustrated by the 'sacred' disease of Cambyses, no doubt
epilepsy; see _Herodot._ lib. iii. chap. xxxiv. vol. ii. p. 63.

Here, then, we have another specimen of the unfavourable influence, which, in the old civilizations, external phenomena exercised over the human mind. For those parts of Asia where the highest refinement was reached, are, from various physical causes, much more unhealthy than the most civilized parts of Europe.[242] This fact alone must have produced a considerable effect on the national character,[243] and the more so, as it was aided by those other circumstances which I have pointed out, all tending in the same direction. To this may be added, that the great plagues by which Europe has at different periods been scourged, have, for the most part, proceeded from the East, which is their natural birthplace, and where they are most fatal. Indeed, of those cruel diseases now existing in Europe, scarcely one is indigenous; and the worst of them were imported from tropical countries in and after the first century of the Christian era.[244]

[242] Heat, moisture, and consequent rapid decomposition of vegetable
matter, are certainly among the causes of this; and to them may
perhaps be added the electrical state of the atmosphere in the
tropics. Compare _Holland's Medical Notes_, p. 477; _M'William's
Medical Expedition to the Niger_, pp. 157, 185; _Simon's
Pathology_, p. 269; _Forry's Climate and its Endemic Influences_,
p. 158. M. Lepelletier says, rather vaguely (_Physiologie
Médicale_, vol. iv. p. 527), that the temperate zones are
'favorables à l'exercice complet et régulier des phénomènes
vitaux.'

[243] And must have strengthened the power of the clergy; for, as
Charlevoix says with great frankness, 'pestilences are the
harvests of the ministers of God.' _Southey's History of Brazil_,
vol. ii. p. 254.

[244] For evidence of the extra-European origin of European diseases,
some of which, such as the small-pox, have passed from epidemics
into endemics, compare _Encyclop. of the Medical Sciences_, 4to,
1847, p. 728; _Transactions of Asiatic Society_, vol. ii. pp. 54,
55; _Michaelis on the Laws of Moses_, vol. iii. p. 313;
_Sprengel_, _Histoire de la Médecine_, vol. ii. pp. 33, 195;
_Wallace's Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind_, pp. 81, 82;
_Huetiana_, Amst. 1723, pp. 132-135; _Sanders on the Small Pox_,
Edinb. 1813, pp. 3-4; _Wilks's Hist. of the South of India_, vol.
iii. pp. 16-21; _Clot-Bey de la Peste_, Paris, 1840, p. 227.

Summing up these facts, it may be stated, that in the civilizations exterior to Europe, all nature conspired to increase the authority of the imaginative faculties, and weaken the authority of the reasoning ones. With the materials now existing, it would be possible to follow this vast law to its remotest consequences, and show how in Europe it is opposed by another law diametrically opposite, and by virtue of which the tendency of natural phenomena is, on the whole, to limit the imagination, and embolden the understanding: thus inspiring Man with confidence in his own resources, and facilitating the increase of his knowledge, by encouraging that bold, inquisitive, and scientific spirit, which is constantly advancing, and on which all future progress must depend.

It is not to be supposed that I can trace in detail the way in which, owing to these peculiarities, the civilization of Europe has diverged from all others that preceded it. To do this, would require a learning and a reach of thought to which hardly any single man ought to pretend; since it is one thing to have a perception of a large and general truth, and it is another thing to follow out that truth in all its ramifications, and prove it by such evidence as will satisfy ordinary readers. Those, indeed, who are accustomed to speculations of this character, and are able to discern in the history of man something more than a mere relation of events, will at once understand that in these complicated subjects, the wider any generalization is, the greater will be the chance of apparent exceptions; and that when the theory covers a very large space, the exceptions may be innumerable, and yet the theory remain perfectly accurate. The two fundamental propositions which I hope to have demonstrated, are, 1st, That there are certain natural phenomena which act on the human mind by exciting the imagination; and 2dly, That those phenomena are much more numerous out of Europe than in it. If these two propositions are admitted, it inevitably follows, that in those countries where the imagination has received the stimulus, some specific effects must have been produced; unless, indeed, the effects have been neutralized by other causes. Whether or not there have been antagonistic causes, is immaterial to the truth of the theory, which is based on the two propositions just stated. In a scientific point of view, therefore, the generalization is complete; and it would perhaps be prudent to leave it as it now stands, rather than attempt to confirm it by further illustrations, since all particular facts are liable to be erroneously stated, and are sure to be contradicted by those who dislike the conclusions they corroborate. But in order to familiarize the reader with the principles I have put forward, it does seem advisable that a few instances should be given of their actual working: and I will, therefore, briefly notice the effects they have produced in the three great divisions of Literature, Religion, and Art. In each of these departments, I will endeavour to indicate how the leading features have been affected by the Aspects of Nature; and with a view of simplifying the inquiry, I will take the two most conspicuous instances on each side, and compare the manifestations of the intellect of Greece with those of the intellect of India: these being the two countries respecting which the materials are most ample, and in which the physical contrasts are most striking.

If, then, we look at the ancient literature of India, even during its best period, we shall find the most remarkable evidence of the uncontrolled ascendency of the imagination. In the first place, we have the striking fact that scarcely any attention has been paid to prose composition; all the best writers having devoted themselves to poetry, as being most congenial to the national habits of thought. Their works on grammar, on law, on history, on medicine, on mathematics, on geography, and on metaphysics, are nearly all poems, and are put together according to a regular system of versification.[245] The consequence is, that while prose writing is utterly despised, the art of poetry has been cultivated so assiduously, that the Sanscrit can boast of metres more numerous and more complicated than have ever been possessed by any of the European languages.[246]

[245] 'So verwandelt das geistige Leben des Hindu sich in wahre Poesie,
und das bezeichnende Merkmal seiner ganzen Bildung ist:
Herrschaft der Einbildungskraft über den Verstand; im geraden
Gegensatz mit der Bildung des Europäers, deren allgemeiner
Charakter in der Herrschaft des Verstandes über die
Einbildungskraft besteht. Es wird dadurch begreiflich, dass die
Literatur der Hindus nur eine poetische ist; dass sie überreich
an Dichterwerken, aber arm am wissenschaftlichen Schriften sind;
dass ihre heiligen Schriften, ihre Gesetze und Sagen poetisch,
und grösstentheils in Versen geschrieben sind; ja dass Lehrbücher
der Grammatik, der Heilkunde, der Mathematik und Erdbeschreibung
in Versen verfasst sind.' _Rhode_, _Religiöse Bildung der
Hindus_, vol. ii. p. 626. Thus, too, we are told respecting one of
their most celebrated metaphysical systems, that 'the best text
of the Sanchya is a short treatise in verse.' _Colebrooke on the
Philosophy of the Hindus_, in _Transactions of Asiatic Society_,
vol. i. p. 23. And in another place the same high authority says
(_Asiatic Researches_, vol. x. p. 439), 'the metrical treatises
on law and other sciences are almost entirely composed in this
easy verse.' M. Klaproth, in an analysis of a Sanscrit history of
Cashmere, says, 'comme presque toutes les compositions hindoues,
il est écrit en vers.' _Journal Asiatique_, I. série, vol. vii.
p. 8, Paris, 1825. See also, in vol. vi. pp. 175, 176, the
remarks of M. Burnouf: 'Les philosophes indiens, comme s'ils ne
pouvaient échapper aux influences poétiques de leur climat,
traitent les questions de la métaphysique le plus abstraite par
similitudes et métaphores.' Compare vol. vi. p. 4, 'le génie
indien si poétique et si religieux;' and see _Cousin_, _Hist. de
la Philosophie_, II. série, vol. i. p. 27.

[246] Mr. Yates says of the Hindus, that no other people have ever
'presented an equal variety of poetic compositions. The various
metres of Greece and Rome have filled Europe with astonishment;
but what are these, compared with the extensive range of Sanscrit
metres under its three classes of poetical writing?' _Yates on
Sanscrit Alliteration_, in _Asiatic Researches_, vol. xx. p. 159,
Calcutta, 1836. See also on the Sanscrit metres, p. 321, and an
Essay by Colebrooke, vol. x. pp. 389-474. On the metrical system
of the Vedas, see Mr. Wilson's note in the _Rig Veda Sanhita_,
vol. ii. p. 135.

This peculiarity in the form of Indian literature is accompanied by a corresponding peculiarity in its spirit. For it is no exaggeration to say, that in that literature every thing is calculated to set the reason of man at open defiance. An imagination, luxuriant even to disease, runs riot on every occasion. This is particularly seen in those productions which are most eminently national, such as the Ramayana, the Mahabharat, and the Puranas in general. But we also find it even in their geographical and chronological systems, which of all others might be supposed least liable to imaginative flights. A few examples of the statements put forward in the most authoritative books, will supply the means of instituting a comparison with the totally opposite condition of the European intellect, and will give the reader some idea of the extent to which credulity can proceed, even among a civilized people.[247]

[247] In Europe, as we shall see in the sixth chapter of this volume;
the credulity was at one time extraordinary; but the age was then
barbarous, and barbarism is always credulous. On the other hand,
the examples gathered from Indian literature will be taken from
the works of a lettered people, written in a language extremely
rich, and so highly polished, that some competent judges have
declared it equal, if not superior, to the Greek.

Of all the various ways in which the imagination has distorted truth, there is none that has worked so much harm as an exaggerated respect for past ages. This reverence for antiquity is repugnant to every maxim of reason, and is merely the indulgence of a poetic sentiment in favour of the remote and unknown. It is, therefore, natural that, in periods when the intellect was comparatively speaking inert, this sentiment should have been far stronger than it now is; and there can be little doubt that it will continue to grow weaker, and that in the same proportion the feeling of progress will gain ground; so that veneration for the past will be succeeded by hope for the future. But formerly the veneration was supreme, and innumerable traces of it may be found in the literature and popular creed of every country. It is this, for instance, which inspired the poets with their notion of a golden age, in which the world was filled with peace, in which evil passions were stilled, and crimes were unknown. It is this, again, which gave to theologians their idea of the primitive virtue and simplicity of man, and of his subsequent fall from that high estate. And it is this same principle which diffused a belief that in the olden times, men were not only more virtuous and happy, but also physically superior in the structure of their bodies; and that by this means they attained to a larger stature, and lived to a greater age, than is possible for us, their feeble and degenerate descendants.

Opinions of this kind, being adopted by the imagination in spite of the understanding, it follows that the strength of such opinions becomes, in any country, one of the standards by which we may estimate the predominance of the imaginative faculties. Applying this test to the literature of India, we shall find a striking confirmation of the conclusions already drawn. The marvellous feats of antiquity with which the Sanscrit books abound, are so long and so complicated, that it would occupy too much space to give even an outline of them; but there is one class of these singular fictions which is well worth attention, and admits of being briefly stated. I allude to the extraordinary age which man was supposed to have attained in former times. A belief in the longevity of the human race, at an early period of the world, was the natural product of those feelings which ascribed to the ancients an universal superiority over the moderns; and this we see exemplified in some of the Christian, and in many of the Hebrew writings. But the statements in these works are tame and insignificant when compared with what is preserved in the literature of India. On this, as on every subject, the imagination of the Hindus distanced all competition. Thus, among an immense number of similar facts, we find it recorded that in ancient times the duration of the life of common men was 80,000 years,[248] and that holy men lived to be upwards of 100,000.[249] Some died a little sooner, others a little later; but in the most flourishing period of antiquity, if we take all classes together, 100,000 years was the average.[250] Of one king, whose name was Yudhishthir, it is casually mentioned that he reigned 27,000 years;[251] while another, called Alarka, reigned 66,000.[252] They were cut off in their prime, since there are several instances of the early poets living to be about half-a-million.[253] But the most remarkable case is that of a very shining character in Indian history, who united in his single person the functions of a king and a saint. This eminent man lived in a pure and virtuous age, and his days were, indeed, long in the land; since, when he was made king, he was two million years old: he then reigned 6,300,000 years; having done which, he resigned his empire, and lingered on for 100,000 years more.[254]

[248] 'The limit of life was vol. xvi. p. 456, Calcutta, 1828. 80,000
years.' _Asiatic Researches_. This was likewise the estimate of
the Tibetan divines, according to whom men formerly 'parvenaient
à l'âge de 80,000 ans.' _Journal Asiatique_, I. série, vol. iii.
p. 199, Paris, 1823.

[249] 'Den Hindu macht dieser Widerspruch nicht verlegen, da er seine
Heiligen 100,000 Jahre und länger leben lässt.' _Rhode_, _Relig.
Bildung der Hindus_, vol. i. p. 175.

[250] In the _Dabistan_, vol. ii. p. 47, it is stated of the earliest
inhabitants of the world, that 'the duration of human life in
this age extended to one hundred thousand common years.'

[251] Wilford (_Asiatic Researches_, vol. v. p. 242) says, 'When the
Puranics speak of the kings of ancient times, they are equally
extravagant. According to them, King Yudhishthir reigned
seven-and-twenty thousand years.'

[252] 'For sixty thousand and sixty hundred years no other youthful
monarch except Alarka reigned over the earth.' _Vishnu Purana_,
p. 408.

[253] And sometimes more. In the Essay on Indian Chronology in _Works of
Sir W. Jones_, vol. i. p. 325, we hear of 'a conversation between
Valmic and Vyasa, ... two bards whose ages were separated by a
period of 864,000 years.' This passage is also in _Asiatic
Researches_, vol. ii. p. 399.

[254] 'He was the first king, first anchoret, and first saint; and is
therefore entitled Prathama-Raja, Prathama Bhicshacara, Prathama
Jina, and Prathama Tirthancara. At the time of his inauguration
as king, his age was 2,000,000 years. He reigned 6,300,000 years,
and then resigned his empire to his sons: and having employed
100,000 years in passing through the several stages of austerity
and sanctity, departed from this world on the summit of a
mountain named Ashtapada.' _Asiatic Researches_, vol. ix. p. 305.

The same boundless reverence for antiquity made the Hindus refer every thing important to the most distant periods; and they frequently assign a date which is absolutely bewildering.[255] Their great collection of laws, called the _Institutes of Menu_, is certainly less than 3,000 years old; but the Indian chronologists, so far from being satisfied with this, ascribe to them an age that the sober European mind finds a difficulty even in conceiving. According to the best native authorities, these Institutes were revealed to man about two thousand million years before the present era.[256]

[255] 'Speculationen über Zahlen sind dem Inder so geläufig, dass selbst
die Sprache einen Ausdruck hat für eine Unität mit 63 Nullen,
nämlich Asanke, eben weil die Berechnung der Weltperioden diese
enorme Grössen nothwendig machte, denn jene einfachen 12,000
Jahre schienen einem Volke, welches so gerne die höchstmögliche
Potenz auf seine Gottheit übertragen mögte, viel zu geringe zu
seyn.' _Bohlen_, _das alte Indien_, vol. ii. p. 298.

[256] _Elphinstone's History of India_, p. 136, 'a period exceeding
4,320,000 multiplied by six times seventy-one.'

All this is but a part of that love of the remote, that straining after the infinite, and that indifference to the present, which characterizes every branch of the Indian intellect. Not only in literature, but also in religion and in art, this tendency is supreme. To subjugate the understanding, and exalt the imagination, is the universal principle. In the dogmas of their theology, in the character of their gods, and even in the forms of their temples, we see how the sublime and threatening aspects of the external world have filled the mind of the people with those images of the grand and the terrible, which they strive to reproduce in a visible form, and to which they owe the leading peculiarities of their national culture.

Our view of this vast process may be made clearer by comparing it with the opposite condition of Greece. In Greece, we see a country altogether the reverse of India. The works of nature, which in India are of startling magnitude, are in Greece far smaller, feebler, and in every way less threatening to man. In the great centre of Asiatic civilization, the energies of the human race are confined, and as it were intimidated, by the surrounding phenomena. Besides the dangers incidental to tropical climates, there are those noble mountains, which seem to touch the sky, and from whose sides are discharged mighty rivers, which no art can divert from their course, and which no bridge has ever been able to span. There, too, are impassable forests, whole countries lined with interminable jungle, and beyond them, again, dreary and boundless deserts; all teaching Man his own feebleness, and his inability to cope with natural forces. Without, and on either side, there are great seas, ravaged by tempests far more destructive than any known in Europe, and of such sudden violence, that it is impossible to guard against their effects. And, as if in those regions every thing combined to cramp the activity of Man, the whole line of coast, from the mouth of the Ganges to the extreme south of the peninsula, does not contain a single safe and capacious harbour, not one port that affords a refuge, which is perhaps more necessary there than in any other part of the world.[257]

[257] Symes (_Embassy to Ava_, vol. iii. p. 278) says: 'From the mouth
of the Ganges to Cape Comorin, the whole range of our continental
territory, there is not a single harbour capable of affording
shelter to a vessel of 500 tons burden.' Indeed, according to
Percival, there is with the exception of Bombay, no harbour,
'either on the Coromandel or Malabar coasts, in which ships can
moor in safety at all seasons of the year.' _Percival's Account
of Ceylon_, pp. 2, 15, 66.

But in Greece, the aspects of nature are so entirely different, that the very conditions of existence are changed. Greece, like India, forms a peninsula; but while in the Asiatic country every thing is great and terrible, in the European country every thing is small and feeble. The whole of Greece occupies a space somewhat less than the kingdom of Portugal,[258] that is about a fortieth part of what is now called Hindustan.[259] Situated in the most accessible part of a narrow sea, it had easy contact on the east with Asia Minor, on the west with Italy, on the south with Egypt. Dangers of all kinds were far less numerous than in the tropical civilizations. The climate was more healthy;[260] earthquakes were less frequent; hurricanes were less disastrous; wild-beasts and noxious animals less abundant. In regard to the other great features, the same law prevails. The highest mountains in Greece are less than one-third of the Himalaya, so that nowhere do they reach the limit of perpetual snow.[261] As to rivers, not only is there nothing approaching those imposing volumes which are poured down from the mountains of Asia, but nature is so singularly sluggish, that neither in Northern nor in Southern Greece do we find any thing beyond a few streams, which are easily forded, and which, indeed, in the summer season, are frequently dried up.[262]

[258] 'Altogether its area is somewhat less than that of Portugal.'
_Grote's History of Greece_, vol. ii. p. 302; and the same remark
in _Thirlwall's History of Greece_, vol. i. p. 2, and in
_Heeren's Ancient Greece_, 1845, p. 16. M. Heeren says, 'But even
if we add all the islands, its square contents are a third less
than those of Portugal.'

[259] The area of Hindostan being, according to Mr. M'Culloch (_Geog.
Dict._ 1849, vol. i. p. 993), 'between 1,200,000 and 1,300,000
square miles.'

[260] In the best days of Greece, those alarming epidemics, by which the
country was subsequently ravaged, were comparatively little
known: see _Thirlwall's History of Greece_, vol. iii. p. 134,
vol. viii. p. 471. This may be owing to large cosmical causes, or
to the simple fact, that the different forms of pestilence had
not yet been imported from the East by actual contact. On the
vague accounts we possess of the earlier plagues, see _Clot-Bey
de la Peste_, Paris, 1840. pp. 21, 46, 184. The relation even of
Thucydides is more satisfactory to scholars than to pathologists.

[261] 'Mount Guino, the highest point in Greece, and near its northern
boundary, is 8,239 feet high.... No mountain in Greece reaches
the limit of perpetual snow.' _M'Culloch's Geog. Dict._ 1849,
vol. i. p. 924. Compare the table of mountains in Baker's Memoir
on North Greece, in _Journal of Geographical Society_, vol. vii.
p. 94, with _Bakewell's Geology_, pp. 621, 622.

[262] 'Greece has no navigable river.' _M'Culloch's Geog. Dict._ vol. i.
p. 924. 'Most of the rivers of Greece are torrents in early
spring, and dry before the end of the summer.' _Grote's History
of Greece_, vol. ii. p. 286.

These striking differences in the material phenomena of the two countries gave rise to corresponding differences in their mental associations. For as all ideas must arise partly from what are called spontaneous operations in the mind, and partly from what is suggested to the mind by the external world, it was natural that so great an alteration in one of the causes should produce an alteration in the effects. The tendency of the surrounding phenomena was in India to inspire fear; in Greece to give confidence. In India Man was intimidated; in Greece he was encouraged. In India obstacles of every sort were so numerous, so alarming, and apparently so inexplicable, that the difficulties of life could only be solved by constantly appealing to the direct agency of supernatural causes. Those causes being beyond the province of the understanding, the resources of the imagination were incessantly occupied in studying them; the imagination itself was overworked, its activity became dangerous, it encroached on the understanding, and the equilibrium of the whole was destroyed. In Greece opposite circumstances were followed by opposite results. In Greece Nature was less dangerous, less intrusive, and less mysterious than in India. In Greece, therefore, the human mind was less appalled, and less superstitious; natural causes began to be studied; physical science first became possible; and Man, gradually waking to a sense of his own power, sought to investigate events with a boldness not to be expected in those other countries, where the pressure of Nature troubled his independence, and suggested ideas with which knowledge is incompatible.

The effect of these habits of thought on the national religion must be very obvious to whoever has compared the popular creed of India with that of Greece. The mythology of India, like that of every tropical country, is based upon terror, and upon terror, too, of the most extravagant kind. Evidence of the universality of this feeling abounds in the sacred books of the Hindus, in their traditions, and even in the very form and appearance of their gods. And so deeply is all this impressed on the mind, that the most popular deities are invariably those with whom images of fear are most intimately associated. Thus, for example, the worship of Siva is more general than any other; and as to its antiquity, there is reason to believe that it was borrowed by the Brahmins from the original Indians.[263] At all events, it is very ancient, and very popular; and Siva himself forms, with Brahma and Vishnu, the celebrated Hindu Triad. We need not, therefore, be surprised that with this god are connected images of terror, such as nothing but a tropical imagination could conceive. Siva is represented to the Indian mind as a hideous being, encircled by a girdle of snakes, with a human skull in his hand, and wearing a necklace composed of human bones. He has three eyes; the ferocity of his temper is marked by his being clothed in a tiger's skin; he is represented as wandering about like a madman, and over his left shoulder the deadly cobra di capella rears its head. This monstrous creation of an awe-struck fancy has a wife Doorga, called sometimes Kali, and sometimes by other names.[264] She has a body of dark blue; while the palms of her hands are red, to indicate her insatiate appetite for blood. She has four arms, with one of which she carries the skull of a giant; her tongue protrudes, and hangs lollingly from her mouth; round her waist are the hands of her victims; and her neck is adorned with human heads strung together in a ghastly row.[265]

[263] See Stevenson on _The Anti-Brahmanical Religion of the Hindus_, in
_Journal of Asiatic Society_, vol. viii. pp. 331, 332, 336, 338.
Mr. Wilson (_Journal_, vol. iii. p. 204) says, 'The prevailing
form of the Hindu religion in the south of the peninsula was, at
the commencement of the Christian era, and some time before it
most probably, that of Siva.' See also vol. v. p. 85, where it is
stated that Siva 'is the only Hindu god to whom honour is done at
Ellora.' Compare _Transac. of Soc. of Bombay_, vol. iii. p. 521;
_Heeren's Asiatic Nations_, 1846, vol. ii. pp. 62, 66. On the
philosophical relations between the followers of Siva and those
of Vishnu, see _Ritter's Hist. of Ancient Philosophy_, vol. iv.
pp. 334, 335; and the noticeable fact (_Buchanan's Mysore_, vol.
ii. p. 410), that even the Naimar caste, whose 'proper deity' is
Vishnu, 'wear on their foreheads the mark of Siva.' As to the
worship of Siva in the time of Alexander the Great, see
_Thirlwall's History of Greece_, vol. vii. p. 36; and for further
evidence of its extent, _Bohlen_, _das alte Indien_, vol. i. pp.
29, 147, 206, and _Transac. of Asiatic Society_, vol. ii. pp. 50,
294.

[264] So it is generally stated by the Hindu theologians; but, according
to Rammohun Roy, Siva had two wives. See _Rammohun Roy on the
Veds_, p. 90.

[265] On these attributes and representations of Siva and Doorga, see
_Rhode_, _Religiöse Bildung der Hindus_, vol. ii. p. 241;
_Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus_, pp. 63, 92; _Bohlen_, _das
alte Indien_, vol. i. p. 207; _Ward's Religion of the Hindoos_,
vol. i. pp. xxxvii. 27, 145; _Transac. of Society of Bombay_,
vol. i. pp. 215, 221. Compare the curious account of an image
supposed to represent Mahadeo, in _Journal Asiatique_, I. série,
vol. i. p. 354, Paris, 1822.

If we now turn to Greece, we find, even in the infancy of its religion, not the faintest trace of any thing approaching to this. For, in Greece, the causes of fear being less abundant, the expression of terror was less common. The Greeks, therefore, were by no means disposed to incorporate into their religion those feelings of dread natural to the Hindus. The tendency of Asiatic civilization was to widen the distance between men and their deities; the tendency of Greek civilization was to diminish it. Thus it is, that in Hindostan all the gods had something monstrous about them; as Vishnu with four hands, Brahma with five heads, and the like.[266] But the gods of Greece were always represented in forms entirely human.[267] In that country, no artist would have gained attention, if he had presumed to portray them in any other shape. He might make them stronger than men, he might make them more beautiful; but still they must be men. The analogy between God and Man, which excited the religious feelings of the Greeks, would have been fatal to those of the Hindus.

[266] _Ward on the Religion of the Hindoos_, vol. i. p. 35; _Transac. of
Society of Bombay_, vol. i. p. 223. Compare the gloss in the
_Dabistan_, vol. ii. p. 202.

[267] 'The Greek gods were formed like men, with greatly increased
powers and faculties, and acted as men would do if so
circumstanced, but with a dignity and energy suited to their
nearer approach to perfection. The Hindu gods, on the other hand,
though endued with human passions, have always something
monstrous in their appearance, and wild and capricious in their
conduct. They are of various colours, red, yellow, and blue; some
have twelve heads, and most have four hands. They are often
enraged without a cause, and reconciled without a motive.'
_Elphinstone's History of India_, pp. 96, 97. See also _Erskine
on the Temple of Elephanta_, in _Transac. of Society of Bombay_,
vol. i. p. 246; and the _Dabistan_, vol. i. p. cxi.

This difference between the artistic expressions of the two religions was accompanied by an exactly similar difference between their theological traditions. In the Indian books, the imagination is exhausted in relating the feats of the gods; and the more obviously impossible any achievement is, the greater the pleasure with which it was ascribed to them. But the Greek gods had not only human forms, but also human attributes, human pursuits, and human tastes.[268] The men of Asia, to whom every object of nature was a source of awe, acquired such habits of reverence, that they never dared to assimilate their own actions with the actions of their deities. The men of Europe, encouraged by the safety and inertness of the material world, did not fear to strike a parallel, from which they would have shrunk had they lived amid the dangers of a tropical country. It is thus that the Greek divinities are so different from those of the Hindus, that in comparing them we seem to pass from one creation into another. The Greeks generalized their observations upon the human mind, and then applied them to the gods.[269] The coldness of women was figured in Diana; their beauty and sensuality in Venus; their pride in Juno; their accomplishments in Minerva. To the ordinary avocations of the gods the same principle was applied. Neptune was a sailor; Vulcan was a smith; Apollo was sometimes a fiddler, sometimes a poet, sometimes a keeper of oxen. As to Cupid, he was a wanton boy, who played with his bow and arrows; Jupiter was an amorous and good-natured king; while Mercury was indifferently represented either as a trustworthy messenger, or else as a common and notorious thief.

[268] 'In the material polytheism of other leading ancient nations, the
Egyptians, for example, the incarnation of the Deity was chiefly,
or exclusively, confined to animals, monsters, or other fanciful
emblems.... In Greece, on the other hand, it was an almost
necessary result of the spirit and grace with which the deities
were embodied in human forms, that they should also be burdened
with human interests and passions. Heaven, like earth, had its
courts and palaces, its trades and professions, its marriages,
intrigues, divorces.' _Mure's History of the Literature of
Ancient Greece_, vol. i. pp. 471, 472. So, too, Tennemann
(_Geschichte der Philosophie_, vol. iii. p. 419): 'Diese Götter
haben Menschengestalt.... Haben die Götter aber nicht nur
menschliche Gestalt, sondern auch einen menschlichen Körper, so
sind sie als Menschen auch denselben Unvollkommenheiten,
Krankheiten und dem Tode unterworfen; dieses streitet mit dem
Begriffe,' _i.e._ of Epicurus. Compare _Grote's History of
Greece_, vol. i. p. 596: 'The mythical age was peopled with a
mingled aggregate of gods, heroes, and men, so confounded
together, that it was often impossible to distinguish to which
class any individual name belonged.' See also the complaint of
Xenophanes, in _Müller's Hist. of Lit. of Greece_, London, 1856,
p. 251.

[269] The same remark applies to beauty of form, which they first aimed
at in the statues of men, and then brought to bear upon the
statues of the gods. This is well put in Mr. Grote's important
work, _History of Greece_, vol. iv. pp. 133, 134, edit. 1847.

Precisely the same tendency to approximate human forces towards superhuman ones, is displayed in another peculiarity of the Greek religion. I mean, that in Greece we for the first time meet with hero-worship, that is, the deification of mortals. According to the principles already laid down, this could not be expected in a tropical civilization, where the Aspects of Nature filled Man with a constant sense of his own incapacity. It is, therefore, natural that it should form no part of the ancient Indian religion;[270] neither was it known to the Egyptians,[271] nor to the Persians,[272] nor, so far as I am aware, to the Arabians.[273] But in Greece, Man being less humbled, and, as it were, less eclipsed, by the external world, thought more of his own powers, and human nature did not fall into that discredit in which it elsewhere sank. The consequence was, that the deification of mortals was a recognized part of the national religion at a very early period in the history of Greece;[274] and this has been found so natural to Europeans, that the same custom was afterwards renewed with eminent success by the Romish Church. Other circumstances, of a very different character, are gradually eradicating this form of idolatry; but its existence is worth observing, as one of the innumerable illustrations of the way in which European civilization has diverged from all those that preceded it.[275]

[270] 'But the worship of deified heroes is no part of that system.'
_Colebrooke on the Vedas_, in _Asiatic Researches_, vol. viii.
p. 495.

[271] _Mackay's Religious Development_, vol. ii. p. 53, Lond. 1850.
Compare _Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians_, vol. iv. pp. 148, 318;
and _Matter_, _Histoire de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie_, vol. i. p. 2;
the 'culte des grands hommes,' which afterwards arose in
Alexandria (_Matter_, vol. i. p. 54), must have been owing to
Greek influence.

[272] There are no indications of it in the Zendavesta; and Herodotus
says, that the Persians were unlike the Greeks, in so far as they
disbelieved in a god having a human form; book i. chap. cxxxi.
vol. i. p. 308: [Greek: ouk anthrôpophyeas enomisan tous theous,
kataper hoi Hellênes einai].

[273] I am not acquainted with any evidence connecting this worship with
the old Arabian religion; and it was certainly most alien to the
spirit of Mohammedanism.

[274] _Mure's History of the Literature of Greece_, vol. i. pp. 28, 500,
vol. ii. p. 402: very good remarks on a subject handled
unsatisfactorily by Coleridge; _Literary Remains_, vol. i. p.
185. Thirlwall (_History of Greece_, vol. i. p. 207) admits that
'the views and feelings out of which it (the worship of heroes)
arose, seem to be clearly discernible in the Homeric poems.'
Compare _Cudworth's Intellectual System_, vol. ii. pp. 226, 372.
In the Cratylus, chap. xxxiii., Socrates is represented as
asking, [Greek: Ouk oistha hoti hêmitheoi oi hêrôes]; _Platonis
Opera_, vol. iv. p. 227, edit. Bekker, Lond. 1826. And in the
next century, Alexander obtained for his friend, Hephæstion, the
right of being 'worshipped as a hero' _Grote's History of
Greece_, vol. xii. p. 339.

[275] The adoration of the dead, and particularly the adoration of
martyrs, was one great point of opposition between the orthodox
church and the Manichæans (_Beausobre_, _Histoire Critique de
Manichée_, vol. i. p. 316, vol. ii. pp. 651, 669); and it is easy
to understand how abhorrent such a practice must have been to the
Persian heretics.