130 



THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



came light, and heat, and dews, and rains, and 

 all other blessings; and, when the gods were 

 angry, winds, and storms, thunderbolts and 

 earthquakes. The sun and stars were made 

 expressly tor man, as were the seasons, with 

 seed-time and harvesl. The earth rested upon 

 pillars, while under it were immense 'fires, in 

 which the demons were confined, and heie the 

 wicked were doomed to dwell ; while above the 

 vault were the Elysian fields, the home of the 

 blest. 



This wild astronomical and theological 

 theory of creation was the prevailing idea 

 among all peoples, five and six thousand years 

 ago. Indeed, the true theory in regard to the 

 solar system has been taught by the learned 

 but a little more than three hundred years, 

 the great mass of the uneducated still enter- 

 taining a belief in the ancient system, and are 

 still quoting their sacred books in confirmation 

 of it. The Phoenicians taught this flat-earth- 

 and-vaulted-firmament theory at home, and in 

 all their colonies. It was a part of the 

 religious belie" of all the nations bordering on 

 the Meditenanean. Il was believed by the 

 cultured Greeks, as by the more modern 

 Romans. The whole system of theology of 

 all these nations was built upon this idea ; and 

 this was also true of the Hebrews, as their 

 books furnish incontrovertible evidence. True, 

 Herodotus, the Greek historian, ridiculed this 

 teaching, and wrote : 



"I cannot but laugh, when I see numbers 

 of persons drawing maps of the world without 

 having any reason to guide them ; making, as 

 they do, the ocean-stream to run all around 

 the earth, and the earth itself an exact circle, 

 as if described by a pair of compasses." 



The reader will please remember that this 

 was the idea entertained by him who gave us 

 a history of the " flood," the " opening of the 

 windows of heaven " through which to let 

 down the rain, and the breaking up of " all 

 the fountains of the great deep." This con- 

 ception of the deluge came from Indus; it was 

 as old as the most ancient civilizations ; but 

 it had been modernized with advancing thought 

 as was the story of William Tell — as have all 

 the myths which the karned have exploded — 

 their origin lost in the sands of time, so 

 antiquated that no one can trace their begin- 

 ning, or learn when they were not believed as 

 tacts. 



The mythical teachings in regard to a 

 general deluge are not the only fabrications 

 which have puzzled humanity, and, because 

 of being interblended with a religious education, 



have paralyzed investigation through many 

 generations. The Egyptians taught that the 

 world would be alternately purified by water 

 and fire ; that these were parts of the system 

 which the Creator employed to prevent man 

 from growing in power, and gaining a mastery 

 over him ! The teachings of baibarian races, 

 slightly changed, have survived the ages; 

 they have entered into the religious beliefs of 

 the world, and will be as difficult to eradicate 

 from the common mind as any other inherited 

 error of so ancient an origin. Thos. Moore 

 has well written : — 



"The lover may 

 Distrust that look that steals his soul away ; 

 The babe may cease to think it can play 

 With heaven's rainbow; alchymists may doubt 

 The shining gold their crucible gives out ; 

 But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast 

 To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last.'' 



It is to be regretted that scientists are not 

 permitted, without subjecting themselves to 

 sectarian abuse, to pour in a flood of light 

 upon the ancient fallacies which have crept 

 into all our early teachings. Were they at 

 full liberty to give the public their honest 

 thoughts we should soon have a truer concep- 

 tion of the past, and a more exalted idea of 

 the future; but ere that " good time coming" 

 shall dawn upon the world, it is possible that 

 many years may intervene. 



Commencing with the story of creation, as 

 borrowed from the Hebrew writers from count- 

 ries where they had been slaves, wherein it is 

 represented that the whole planetary and 

 stellar systems are the out-growth of six days' 

 labor, (not the production of a single mind, as 

 the English reader finds it in his translation ; 

 but the task of many gods, as a correct render- 

 ing of the Jewish narrative, will show), with 

 all the long incidental errors, following this 

 first incorrect teaching, and ending witli the 

 looking forward to a general destruction ot the 

 material universe, when a grand conflagration 

 will invelope all in universal ruin; when 

 earth, and moon, and sun, and stars, will be 

 " rolled together as a scroll," and disappear, 

 while darkness and chaos succeed the present 

 order of things, much is found that needs 

 revision. He who is sincerely honest is hope- 

 ful that the day will not be too far distant 

 when every false teaching shall receive that 

 consideration it deserves ; when every myth 

 shall be exploded, and the sunlight of Truth 

 shall illuminate all the dark corners of the 

 world. This grand consummation of desire 

 will usher in the real millenium, when 

 " knowledge shall run to and fro as the waters 

 cover the great deep." 



