THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 177 



in one and all of the teachings of revelation obscured by mas- 

 sive curtains in many colours and patterns of Fable and 

 Superstition. Now and again as with the libraries of Assyria 

 or monuments of Egypt some long-forgotten light of illus- 

 tration is thrown in our way by science, but as already stated, 

 these strong chance rays of light come not from the homes of 

 religion, but are, as it were, trunks or packages it forgot to 

 take with it, and so left behind on its journey when visiting a 

 friend. But the wisdom of all this is the more astounding, 

 and one of the most undeniable proofs of God's unerring hand 

 through the creation of revelations and religions. 



I dare not try to be very explicit because the subject is too 

 vast for this treatise, but I think I have said enough for the 

 reader to trace his way along the road of religious evolution, 

 although my finger-posts are placed very far apart. 



This now brings us to the Eleventh Day of Creation, the 

 age of Government, and in the next chapter I will endeavour 

 to take the reader along the three next days of creation through 

 the ages of Knowledge and Science to the ages of Understand- 

 ing and Commerce till we arrive at the present time, the Four- 

 teenth Day, which is the Age of Invention and mighty wars, in 

 which man is by invention and wars to complete the conquest 

 of the world, and to spread Commerce throughout it by the 

 extinction of international wars. Then the future is to com- 

 mence on the Fifteenth Day by universal peace. This will 

 practically end my treatise, but if I have shown that these 

 fourteen days coincide with the past days of evolution, it is 

 not unreasonable to suppose that the other seven days, the 

 Fifteenth Day, Peace and the end of wars ; Sixteenth, Age of 

 Comfort, Use and Charity ; Seventeenth, Age of Contempt for 

 and prevention of crime ; Eighteenth, Age of Content ; Nine- 

 teenth, Age of Wisdom ; Twentieth, Heaven ; and Twenty- 

 first, Immortality. This is a faint outline of futurity. 



I had intended to close this chapter here, but it subsequently 

 occurred to me that it would be incomplete if I did 

 not write a few words to caution my reader not to let what I 

 have been compelled to show was the probable manner in which 

 religion has been evolved, weaken his beliefs and practice 

 of any form of religion that has or can aid him in the perform- 

 ance of his duties to God and man. Oh ! my dear reader, it 

 is my desire to open up to your mind a higher ideal of your 



