tn WATTS’S LITERARY GUIDE: B E I N G A M O N T H L Y R E C O R D O F L I B E R A L A N D A D V A N C E D P U B L IC A T IO N S .
I
No. 84.]
NOVEMBER 15, 1892.
[ P r i c e O n e P e n n y .
N E W P U B L IC A T IO N S .
OUR L I B R A R Y SH E L V E S .
T he Autobiography of Mr. George Jacob Holyoake, issued in two handsome and bulky volumes, under the title of “ Sixty Years o f an Agitator’s L if e ” (21s.), is now ready. It is a work which is of absorbing interest to every liberal thinker, comprising as it does a record o f the leading incidents in the career of an illustrious and universally-respected veteran in the Rationalist movement. Mr. Holyoake, in his characteristically humorous way, recounts many strange experiences and adventures in social and insurgent movements, enumerating sixty personal friends who have either been imprisoned, transported, banished, hanged, or beheaded. He also supplies new estimates of well-known men, explains the origin of movements of mark, seriously dilates on the tragedies of peace, and deals generally with almost every subject that has agitated the heterodox ranks during the last half-century. The work may be had direct from Messrs. Watts & Co., carriage paid, at the published price.
M e s s r s . W i l l i a m s & N o r g a t e have issued an important w o r k , in two volumes, in elucidation of “ The Supernatural: its Origin, Nature, and Evolution” (15s.).
M r. John B eattie Crozikr has issued a considerably extended edition of his remarkable work on “ Civilisation and Progress” (14s.). In addition to a new preface, in which he deals with the difficulties many readers have encountered in understanding what his new organon is, the author has added two new sections, one of which treats of Hegel’s Philosophy of History, and indicates what he did and what he left undone in his theory of civilisation.
Saladin (W. Stewart Ross) has sent to press his new volume, which will be entitled “ Janet Smith: A Promiscuous Essay on Woman ” (2s. 6d.). The work may be expected almost immediately.
T he Progressive Publishing Company has published in pamphlet form Colonel Ingersoll’s new lecture on “ Voltaire ” (3d-)T he Rev. Charles Voysey has published through Messrs. Williams & Norgate a new and enlarged edition of his “ Mystery of Pain, Death, and S in ” (7s. 6d.)'. The object o f the writer, it may be remembered, is to vindicate on grounds of pure reason the goodness and love of God in ordaining human lot.
* M essrs. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. have issued a volume by Dr. G. Vance Smith dealing with “ The Bible and its Theology as Popularly Taught ” (5s.).
M r. W. S. L illy is engaged upon an examination of Agnosticism, to be issued under the title of “ The Great Enigma."
T he theory which finds the origin of religion in the worship of ancestral ghosts, having been first stated by Mr. Herbert Spencer in Part I. of “ The Principles of Sociology,” is repeated and re-illustrated in his
“ e c c l e s i a s t i c a l i n s t i t u t i o n s ”
(Williams & Norgate; 1885; 183 pp.; 5s.). Evidence is given to show that all forms of religion sprang from the same belief in the power of departed spirits. How men were apotheosised into gods is exemplified by instances from the Vedas, the worship of ancient Egypt, and from Judaism. Christianity is no less a case in point. “ That the story of a god-descended person should be habitually spoken of by Christians as though it were special to their religion,” remarks Mr. Spencer, “ is strange, considering their familiarity with stories of god-descended persons among the Greeks — yEsculapius, Pythagoras, Plato.” Carrying out the parallel with a boldness which must blanch a curate’s cheek, and stagger even a bishop, the author compares the civilised and the savage “ men of God,” and declares that “ a satisfactory distinction between priests and medicine-men is difficult to find.” In the early stage the priest and the conjurer are one. It is his business to bribe or threaten the dreaded ghosts. The office of propitiation is undertaken by the head of the family, from him descending to his eldest male relative ; and this fact is well supported by references to the older Biblical narratives. As a particular family rises to power, its special ancestral spirit is revered by all who come under its dominance, and the head of this family acquires in a heightened degree the sanctity and influence of a propitiator. Kingship and priesthood thus arose together. But the king, much engaged in affairs, often found it necessary to delegate his priestly duties to others, and thus sprang up a holy caste. Or, in some cases, an ingenious sorcerer may be regarded by the primitive community as a priest because he appears able to procure rain and sunshine by his magical spells. When a tribe split up into migrating sections, each would establish the worship of new spirits in the new home, while retaining its fear towards the elder national god. In this way, and through the mingling of the religions of conquerors and conquered, the divinities of polytheistic systems became associated together. As Mr. Spencer acutely points out, the Romans should not be over-much praised for their “ tolerance ” of the gods adored by subjugated peoples, because, to the Latin mind, all gods were ancestral ghosts, and all alike to be venerated. By degrees, inequalities among the gods resulted in the supremacy of one over less esteemed rivals. With the promotion of a god, of course, the advance of the priesthood devoted to his worship keeps pace. The greater the god, the more awful the minister who mediated between him and the common people. Growing power necessitates larger organisation, and a priestly hierarchy results. They who made obeisance to the same god were inevitably drawn together at solemn feasts and the like occasions, and the religious bond becomes a
