The Martyrdom of Man, Winwood Reade [best book club books TXT] 📗

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retribution and no reward for the actions of the earthly life; that life is

merely continued in another region of the world. Death is in fact

regarded as a migration in which, as in all migrations, the emigrants

preserve their relative positions. When a man of importance dies his

family furnish him with an outfit of slaves and wives, and pack up in his

grave his arms and ornaments and clothes, that he may make his

appearance in the underworld in a manner befitting his rank and fortune.

It is believed that the souls of the clothes, as well as of the persons

sacrificed, accompany him there, and it is sometimes believed that all the

clothes which he has worn in his life will then have their resurrection day.

 

The underworld and the upper-world are governed by the same gods or

unseen kings. Man’s life in the upper-world is short: his life in the underworld is long. But as regards the existence of the worlds themselves,

both are eternal, without beginning and without end. This idea is not a

creation of the ripened intellect, as is usually supposed. It is a product of

limited experience, and expression of a seeming fact. The savage did not

see the world begin; therefore it had no beginning. He has not seen it

grow older; therefore it will have no end.

 

The two worlds adjoin each other, and the frontier between them is very

faintly marked. The gods often dress themselves in flesh and blood and

visit the earth to do evil or to do good—to make love to women, to

torment their enemies, to converse with their favourites and friends. On

the other hand there are men who possess the power of leaving their

bodies in their beds and of passing into the other world to obtain divine

poisons which they malignantly employ. The ghosts of the dead often

come and sit by their old firesides and eat what is set apart for them.

Sometimes a departed spirit will re-enter the family, assuming a body

which resembles in its features the one he previously wore.

Distinguished heroes and prophets are often supposed to be hybrids or

mulattoes, the result of a union between a woman and a god. Sometimes

it is believed that a god has come down on earth out of love for a certain

nation, to offer himself up as a sacrifice, and so to quench the blood-thirst

of some sullen and revengeful god who has that nation in his power.

Sometimes a savage people believe that their kings are gods who have

deigned to take upon them a perishable body for a time, and there are

countries in which a still more remarkable superstition prevails. The

royal body even is immortal. The king never eats, never sleeps, and

never dies. This kind of monarch is visible only to his priests. When the

people wish to present a petition he gives them audience seated behind a

curtain, from beneath which he thrusts out his foot in token of assent.

When he dies he is secretly buried by the priests, and a new puppet is

elected in his stead.

 

The savage lives in a strange world, a world of special providences and

divine interpositions, not happening at long intervals and for some great

end, but every day and almost at every hour. A pain, a dream, a sensation

of any kind, a stroke of good or bad luck—whatever, in short, does not

proceed from man, whatever we ascribe, for want of a better word, to

chance—is by him ascribed to the direct interference of the gods. He

knows nothing about the laws of nature. Death itself is not a natural

event. Sooner or later men make the gods angry and are killed.

 

It is difficult for those who have not lived among savages perfectly to

realise their faith. When told that his gods do not exist the savage merely

laughs in mild wonder at such an extraordinary observation being made.

It seems quite natural to him that his gods should be as his parents and

grandparents have described; he believes as he breathes, without an

effort; he feels that what he has been taught is true. His creed is in

harmony with his intellect, and cannot be changed until his intellect is

changed. If a god in a dream, or through the priests, has made him a

promise and the promise is broken, he does not on that account doubt the

existence of the god. He merely supposes that the god has told a lie. Nor

does it seem strange to him that a god should tell a lie. His god is only a

gigantic man, a sensual, despotic king who orders his subjects to give him

the first fruits of the fields, the firstlings of the flock, virgins for his

harem, human bodies for his cannibal repasts. As for himself, he is the

slave of that god or king; he prays, that is to say, he begs; he sings hymns,

that is to say, he flatters; he sacrifices, that is to say, he pays tribute,

chiefly out of fear, but partly in the hope of getting something better in

return—long life, riches, and fruitful wives. He is usually afraid to say of

the gods what he thinks, or even to utter their real name. But sometimes

he gives vent to the hatred which is burning in his heart. Writhing on a

bed of sickness, he heaps curses on the god who he declares is “eating his

inside”; and when he is converted prematurely to a higher creed his god is

still to him the invisible but human king. “O Allah!” a Somali woman

was heard to say, “O Allah! May thy teeth ache like mine! O Allah! May

thy gums be sore as mine!” That Christian monarch the late King Peppel

once exclaimed, when he thought of his approaching end, that if he could

see God he would kill him at once because he made men die.

 

The arithmetical arrangement of the gods depends entirely upon

the intellectual faculties of the people concerned. In the period of

thing-worship, as it may be termed, every brook, tree, hill, and star is

itself a living creature, benevolent or malignant, asleep or awake. In the

next stage every object and phenomenon is inhabited or presided over by

a genius or spirit, and with some nations the virtues and the vices are also

endowed with personality. As the reasoning powers of men expand their

gods diminish in number and rule over larger areas, till finally it is

perceived that there is unity in nature, that everything which exists is a

part of one harmonious whole. It is then asserted that one being

manufactured the world and rules over it supreme. But at first the Great

Being is distant and indifferent, “a god sitting outside the universe”; and

the old gods become viceroys to whom he has deputed the government of

the world. They are afterwards degraded to the rank of messengers or

angels, and it is believed that God is everywhere present; that he fills the

earth and sky; that from him directly proceeds both the evil and the good.

In some systems of belief, however, he is believed to be the author of

good alone, and the dominion of evil is assigned to a rebellious angel or a

rival god.

 

So far as we have gone at present, there has been no question of morality.

All doctrines relating to the creation of the world, the government of man

by superior being, and his destiny after death, are conjectures which have

been given out as facts, handed down with many adornments by tradition,

and accepted by posterity as “revealed religion.” They are theories more

or less rational which uncivilised men have devised in order to explain

the facts of life, and which civilised men believe that they believe. These

doctrines are not in themselves of any moral value. It is of no

consequence, morally speaking, whether a man believes that the world

has been made by one god or by twenty. A savage is not of necessity a

better man because he believes that he lives under the dominion of

invisible tyrants who will compel him some day or other to migrate to

another land.

 

There is a moral sentiment in the human breast which, like intelligence, is

born of obscure instincts, and which gradually becomes developed. Since

the gods of men are the reflected images of men, it is evident that as men

become developed in morality the character of their gods will also be

improved. The king of a savage land punishes only offences against

himself and his dependents. But when that people become more civilised

the king is regarded as the representative of public law. In the same

manner the gods of a savage people demand nothing from their subjects

but taxes and homage. They punish only heresy, which is equivalent to

treason; blasphemy, which is equivalent to insult; and the withholding of

tribute and adoration, which is equivalent to rebellion. And these are the

offences which even among civilised nations the gods are supposed to

punish most severely. But the civilised gods also require that men shall

act justly to one another. They are still despots, for they order men to

flatter them and to give them money. But they are not mere selfish

despots; they will reward those who do good, they will punish those who

do evil to their fellow-men.

 

That vice should be sometimes triumphant and virtue sometimes in

distress creates no difficulty to the savage mind. If a good man meets

with misfortune it is supposed that he is being punished for the sins of an

ancestor or a relation. In a certain stage of barbarism society is composed

not of individuals but of families. If a murder is committed the avengers

of blood kill the first man they meet belonging to the guilty clan. If the

life cannot be obtained in that generation the feud passes on, for the

family never dies. It is considered just and proper that children should be

punished for the sins of their fathers unto the third and fourth generation.

 

In a higher state of society this family system disappears; individualism

becomes established. And as soon as this point is reached the human

mind takes a vast stride. It is discovered that the moral government of

this world is defective, and it is supposed that poetical justice will be

administered in the next. The doctrine of rewards and punishments in a

future state comes into vogue. The world of ghosts is now divided into

two compartments. One is the abode of malignant spirits, the kingdom of

darkness and of pain to which are condemned the blasphemers and the

rebels, the murderers and the thieves. The other is the habitation of the

gods, the kingdom of joy and light, to which angels welcome the obedient

and the good. They are dressed in white robes and adorned with golden

crowns; they dwell eternally in the royal presence, gazing upon his

lustrous countenance and singing his praises in chorus round the throne.

 

To the active European mind such a prospect is not by any means

inviting; but heaven was invented in the East, and in the East to be a

courtier has always been regarded as the supreme felicity. The feelings

of men towards their god in the period at which we have now arrived are

precisely those of an Eastern subject towards his king. The Oriental king

is the lord of all the land; his subjects are his children and his slaves. The

man who is doomed to death kisses the fatal firman and submits with

reverence to his fate. The man who is robbed by the king of all that he

has earned will fold his hands and say “The king