i;o THE THRESHOLD OF EVOLUTION 



usually believed from Egypt, but in all probability by a round- 

 about route from Assyria, who first conquered the Hebrews 

 and Canaanites and subsequently the Jews, and who taught 

 them the belief in One God and One God only possessed of a 

 triple personality which was the doctrine of Brahmin cults. 



It is not possible to put any great reliance in 

 Jewish history prior to the time of David and Saul, and most 

 probably the early Books of the Bible up to the end of the 

 Book of Joshua form but a record of all the prehistoric legends 

 of India, Assyria! and the Eastern world of the day mixed up 

 indiscriminately with those of Palestine, as the cosmopolitan 

 mixture of races, that had taken refuge in its mountain strong- 

 holds, vied with each other for the retention of the legends 

 and fables dearest to each one of them. So we find that the 

 teaching of One God and His Trinity was not universally 

 accepted by the Jews themselves, but only by the followers of 

 Moses till after their captivity in Babylon, which leads me to 

 conclude that upon this occasion the captive Jews came into 

 contact with some of the most enlightened men of their own 

 race who had taken refuge in Babylon when the rest of the 

 Mosaic people were expelled out of Assyria, who reconverted 

 them to the ancient beliefs that they had originally held in 

 India two thousand years earlier ; for remember, dear reader, 

 that the evolution of such deep and lasting forms of divine 

 revelation are the productions of the evolution of the mind 

 and soul of mankind extending over thousands upon thousands 

 of years, and influenced by life under varied environments 

 of evolution, soil and climate. So most probably in some such 

 manner was this doctrine, together with the accounts of the 

 early creation of the world as given in Genesis (which is 

 clearly a record of the religious beliefs of India and Persia 

 in the magnificent days of their prehistoric empires), some 

 even of Chinese origin, and were in some way carried to a 

 nation who were worshippers of Baal, by means of oral and 

 verbal traditions, to form our present beliefs. 



I do not condemn polygamy just because it is polygamy, 

 for looking at it from a broad-minded standpoint I 

 can see that in its day it was one of the greatest virtues, 

 and did more than anything else, perhaps, to advance civilisa- 

 tion and enable it to combat savagery. But its day is past, 

 now that the laws of caste and heredity have taken its 



