554 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



there are many oaks of which it is well estab- 

 lished the age must be one thousand years. In 

 the royal vaults connected with St. George's 

 chapel a number of kings and queens are 

 buried. 



Vedas and Puranas, as the great body 

 of the sacred literature of the Hindoos is 

 called, are written in poetry in the most ancient 

 form of the Sanskrit language. The Vedas, 

 which were believed to be inspired, treat of the 

 thirty-three gods of the heavens, of the air, 

 and of the earth ; of the creation of all things, 

 of the relation of the gods to each other, and 

 the relations and duties of men to each other 

 and to the gods ; of surgery, medicine, music, 

 dancing, war, architecture, mechanical arts, 

 astronomy, astrology, grammar, poetry, etc. 

 The Puranas are eighteen in number, and are 

 regarded with great reverence as the produc- 

 tion of holy men. They treat of law, theology, 

 including histories of their gods, logic, and 

 metaphysics in general, but are filled in the 

 main with superstitions and silly and disgust- 

 ing narratives. 



Unitarians. The Unitarians of the pres- 

 ent day, like almost all Christian sects, must 

 be divided into two classes a conservative 

 and a progressive class or, as they are often 

 called, an old and new school. The former 

 adopt the old rule of the sufficiency of Scrip- 

 ture, though with such qualifications as the 

 scientific criticism of the Bible has rendered 

 indispensable. The most conservative Unita- 

 rian, for example, would not contend for the 

 literal truth of the first chapter of Genesis, nor 

 for the doctrine of verbal inspiration in any 

 shape. The Bible is not, but it contains, the 

 "Word of God, ' ' is the form which best expresses 

 their position on this subject. They generally 

 hold the simple humanity of Christ, and even 

 reject the supernatural birth, thinking the part 

 of the gospels which record that event to be 

 less authentic than the parts referring to the 

 ministry, the death, and resurrection of Christ. 

 What, however, chiefly distinguishes the Unita- 

 rians of this school from those of the new or 

 progressive school is the place which they give 

 to the miracles as supernatural sanctions of 

 the truth of Christianity. Denying that man 

 has any immediate knowledge of the intuition 

 of. spiritual things, they regard Christianity as 

 a system of moral and religious truth external 

 to man's nature, and requiring, in proof of its 

 divine origin, certain evidences beyond its in- 

 herent credibility and adaptation to human 

 wants. This evidence they find in the mira- 

 cles, which they accept as well-attested facts, 

 on tha same ground on which all historical 

 facts are accepted. The Unitarians of the 

 progressive school, so far from regarding man 



as entirely dependent upon bis reasoning pow- 

 ers for his knowledge of religion, rather look 

 upon him as standing in a living relationship 

 with the one infinite source of all truth, and 

 as having within his own nature the germs of 

 the highest religious faith. To this view of 

 Christianity the miracles are not felt to be 

 essential as proofs. Generally speaking, the 

 Unitarians of this school are disposed to regard 

 with favor the freest criticism of the Bible. 

 Unitarians of all shades of opinion are agreed 

 in rejecting the entire orthodox scheme in- 

 cluding the doctrines of the Trinity, the vica- 

 rious atonement, the deity of Christ, original 

 sin, and everlasting punishment as both 

 unscriptural and irrational. They celebrate 

 the Lord's Supper in their churches, not as a 

 sacrament, but as a service commemorative 

 of Christ's death and expressive of spiritual 

 communion with him. 



St. Nicholas and Christmas. The 

 origin of the idea that presents are presented 

 at Christmas time by St. Nicholas, or Santa 

 Claus, probably originated from the following 

 circumstance : St. Nicholas is said to have 

 been Bishop of Myra, and to have died in the 

 year 326. He was noted for his fondness for 

 children, and became their patron saint, and 

 the young were universally taught to revere 

 him. He is said to have supplied three desti- 

 tute widows with marriage portions by secretly 

 leaving money at their windows, and as this 

 occurred just before Christmas, he thus became 

 the purveyor of the gifts of the season to all 

 children in Flanders and Holland, who hung 

 up their shoes and stockings in the confidence 

 that Knecht Globes, as they called him, would 

 put in a prize for good conduct. Formerly, 

 and still, in some parts of Germany, the prac- 

 tice is made of all the parents in a small village 

 sending the presents to some one person, who, 

 in high buskins, a white robe, a mask, and an 

 enormous flax wig, goes from house to house 

 on Christmas eve, and, being received with 

 great pomp and reverence by the parents, calls 

 for the children and bestows the intended 

 gifts upon them, after first severely question- 

 ing the father and mother as to the character 

 and conduct of the child. As this custom be- 

 came less frequent, the custom of children 

 hanging up their stockings was substituted ; 

 and, as the purveyor no longer visited the 

 houses, it was necessary to explain it by tell- 

 ing the children that he came into the house 

 at night, coming down the chimney and leav- 

 ing their presents and departing. The custom 

 of decking the houses and churches at Christ- 

 mas with evergreens is derived from ancient 

 Druidical practices. It was an old belief that 

 sylvan spirits flock to the evergreens and re- 



