gods 

 randeur 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



28$ 



1390. GODS OF SAVAGES LIKE 

 THEIR WORSHIPERS Cannibal Divinities. 

 Their [the Fijian] temples were pyramid- 

 al in form, and were often erected on ter- 

 raced mounds, like those of Central Amer- 

 ica. They also venerated certain upright 

 stones, resembling those which we call dru- 

 idical. " The Feegeeans," says Mr. Hazle- 

 wood, " consider the gods as beings of like 

 passions with themselves. They love and 

 hate; they are proud and revengeful, and 

 make war, and kill and eat each other, and 

 are, in fact, savages and cannibals like 

 themselves." " Cruelty," says Captain Er- 

 skine, " a craving for blood, and especially 

 for human flesh as food, are characteristic 

 of the gods." AVEBURY Prehistoric Times, 

 ch. 13, p. 433. (A., 1900.) 



1391. GOLD MAN'S FIRST METAL 



Treasure among Savages Progress from the 

 Brilliant to the Useful. It is probable that 

 gold was the metal which first attracted 

 the attention of man; it is found in many 

 rivers, and by its bright color would cer- 

 tainly strike even the rudest savages, who 

 are known to be very fond of personal dec- 

 oration. Silver does not appear to have 

 been discovered until long after gold, and 

 was apparently preceded by both copper 

 and tin; for it rarely, if ever, occurs in 

 tumuli of the Bronze Age; but however this 

 may be, copper seems to have been the 

 metal which first became of real importance 

 to man; no doubt owing to the fact that 

 its ores are abundant in many countries, 

 and can be smelted without difficulty; and 

 that, while iron is hardly ever found except 

 in the form of ore, copper often occurs in a 

 native condition, and can be beaten at 

 once into shape. Thus, for instance, the 

 North-American Indians obtained pure cop- 

 per from the mines near Lake Superior and 

 elsewhere, and hammered it at once into 

 axes, bracelets, and other objects.^ AVEBURY 

 Prehistoric Times, ch. 1, p. 3. (A., 1900.) 



1392. GOOD OUT OF SEEMING EVIL 



Terrible and Destructive Volcanic Forces 

 Part of a Wise Economy. It may well be 

 doubted whether the annual average of de- 

 struction to life and property caused by all 

 kinds of subterranean action exceeds that 

 produced either by floods or by hurricanes. 

 Yet we know that the circulation of water 

 and air over our globe are beneficial and 

 necessary operations, and that the mischief 

 occasionally wrought by the moving bodies 

 of water and air is quite insignificant com- 

 pared with the good which they effect. 



In the same way, we shall be able to show 

 that the subterranean energies are necessary 

 to the continued existence of our globe as a 

 place fitted for the habitation of living 

 beings, and that the mischievous and de- 

 structive effects of these energies bear but 

 a small and insignificant proportion to the 

 beneficial results with which they must be 

 credited. JUDD Volcanoes, ch. 10, p. 282. 

 (A., 1899.) 



1393. GOVERNMENT BY ABSTRACT 



REASONING PZato's "Republic "Oblitera- 

 tion of Family Life. The ancient lawgivers 

 were always aiming at standards of polit- 

 ical society framed according to some ab- 

 stract notions of their own as to how things 

 ought to be, rather than upon any attempt 

 to investigate the constitution of human 

 nature as it actually is. ... Perhaps,, 

 all things considered, the most odious con- 

 ceptions of human society which the world 

 has ever seen were the conceptions of an in- 

 tellect certainly among the loftiest which 

 has ever exercised its powers in speculative 

 thought. Plato's Republic is an ideal state, 

 founded on abstract conceptions of the mind, 

 and one of its leading ideas is the destruc- 

 tion of family life and the annihilation of 

 the family affections. And yet this result, 

 odious and irrational as it is, was arrived 

 at from reasoning which is not in itself odi- 

 ous, but which is false, chiefly because it 

 takes no account of the facts of Nature. 

 The welfare of the state was to be the one 

 object of desire in every mind. All sepa- 

 rate interests and affections were to be sup- 

 pressed, and amongst these the very idea of 

 special property in wife or child. The high- 

 est type of man was to be bred by the Re- 

 public as the highest type of dogs and horses, 

 is bred by an intelligent owner. [Grote's. 

 "Plato," vol. iii, p. 203.] Such are the 

 humiliating results of abstract reasoning, 

 pursued in ignorance of the great law that 

 no purpose can be attained in Nature except 

 by legitimate use of the means which Na- 

 ture has supplied. For, as in the material 

 world all her forces must be acknowledged 

 and obeyed before they can be made to serve, 

 so in the realm of mind there can be no 

 success in attaining the highest moral ends, 

 until due honor has been assigned to those 

 motives which arise out of the universal 

 instincts of our race. ARGYLL Reign of 

 Law, ch. 7, p. 194. (Burt.) 



1394. GOVERNMENT BY PHILOSO- 

 PHERS Liberty Not To Be Permitted. A 

 few words will sufficiently express the out- 

 line of [Comte's] scheme. A corporation of 

 philosophers, receiving a modest support 

 from the state, surrounded by reverence, but 

 peremptorily excluded, not only from all po- 

 litical power or employment, but from all 

 riches, and all occupations except their 

 own, are to have the entire direction of 

 education, together with, not only the right 

 and duty of advising and reproving all 

 persons respecting both their public and 

 their private life, but also a control 

 (whether authoritative or only moral is 

 not defined) over the speculative class it- 

 self, to prevent them from w r asting time 

 and ingenuity on inquiries and speculations 

 of no value to mankind (among which he 

 includes many now in high estimation), and 

 compel them to employ all their powers on 

 the investigations which may be judged, at 

 the time, to be the most urgently impor- 

 tant to the general welfare. The temporal 



