Historical Reprints
Religion
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This is scanned facsimile of the original book printed in 1911. We make no apologies for the stray marks, occasional lines, or for the quality of the pages herein. It was a great task, taking hundreds of hours to scan and prepare this book for reprint. The original pages were yellowed with age and very brittle.
There was something very pleasing and very poetical in the thought, that each river had its nymph, and every wood its god: that a visible power watched over even the domestic duties of the people, ready to punish or reward; and that, too in a manner so strange and immediate, that it must have greatly affected their minds in stimulating to good, or deterring from evil.
And now a few words regarding the evolution of this book. It is something over a quarter of a century since I labored with Ezra Cornell in founding the university which bears his honored name. Our purpose was to establish in the State of New York an institution for advanced instruction and research, in which science, pure and applied, should have an equal place with literature; in which the study of literature, ancient and modern, should be emancipated as much as possible from pedantry; and which should be free from various useless trammels and vicious methods which at that period hampered many, if not most, of the American universities and colleges.
Twenty-seven Divine Revelations Containing a Description of Twenty-seven Bibles, and an Exposition of Two thousand Biblical Errors in Science, History, Morals, Religion, and General Events. Written in 1863. Partial Contents: Leading Positions of this Work; Relationship of the Old and New Testaments; Why this Work was Written; All Bibles Useful in Their Place; Twenty-Seven Bibles Described: Hindu, Egyptian, Persian, Chinese, Mohammedan, Jew, Christian; General Analogies of bibles; Numerous Absurdities in the Story of the Deluge; Ten Commandments, Ten Foolish Bible Stories; Bible Prophecies not Fulfilled; Bible Miracles; Bible Contradictions; Obscene Language of the Bible; Bible Errors-New Testament; Divine Revelation Impossible and Unnecessary; Original Sin and Fall of Man not True; Repentance; An Angry God; Special Providences an Erroneous Doctrine; Faith and Belief; A Personal God Impossible; Evil, Natural and Moral, Explained; Rational View of Sin and its Consequences; Bible at War with Eighteen Sciences; Bible as a Moral Necessity; What Shall We Do to be Saved? True Religion Defined; Sects, Schisms, and Skeptics in Christian Countries; The Christians' God; Idolatrous Veneration for bibles; What Shall We Substitute for the Bible? Religious Reconstruction; or, the Moral Necessity for a Religious Reform.
The object of a translator should ever be to hold the mirror up to his author. That being so, his chief duty is to represent so far as practicable the manner in which his author's ideas have been expressed, retaining if possible at the sacrifice of idiom and taste all the peculiarities of his author's imagery and of language as well. In regard to translations from the Sanskrit, nothing is easier than to dish up Hindu ideas, so as to make them agreeable to English taste. But the endeavour of the present translator has been to give in the following pages as literal a rendering as possible of the great work of Vyasa.
The object of a translator should ever be to hold the mirror up to his author. That being so, his chief duty is to represent so far as practicable the manner in which his author's ideas have been expressed, retaining if possible at the sacrifice of idiom and taste all the peculiarities of his author's imagery and of language as well. In regard to translations from the Sanskrit, nothing is easier than to dish up Hindu ideas, so as to make them agreeable to English taste. But the endeavour of the present translator has been to give in the following pages as literal a rendering as possible of the great work of Vyasa.
A collection of works translated into English from one of the rare Christian mystics whose manuscripts have survived the centuries. Those criticized for his lack of 'education' by theologians of his time and theologians of modern times, his works continue to transcend the mediocrity of religion and theology. Besides, when did the Master choose the 'educated scholar' as one of his disciples?
Special Reprint! (1882) a Comparison of the Old and New Testament Myths and Miracles with Those of Heathen Nations of Antiquity Considering also Their Origin and Meaning.
It is not that the history of Spiritual Manifestations in this century and country has not again and again been written, nor that a library of the splendid literature of Spiritualism-narrative, philosophical, and religious-does not already exist, that I have deemed it a duty to give this history to the world.
The book consists of my own personal explorations in a field which I had long been keenly interested, explorations which were fortunate enough to have the guidance of One, whose discoveries in innumerable fields, have constituted Him a Master of the Wisdom of Life.
A study in reincarnation. After one has accepted the idea of Reincarnation, that the soul returns again and again to earth, the question inevitably arises, "What is the end of it all?" Answers have been given by Eastern philosophers, as also by Plato, all of whom postulate Reincarnation as a necessary part of the soul's existence. Their answer is Liberation, or a final freedom from rebirths.
Few in the western world know who the Rumi was - His genius and philosophical thought could be equated with that of Rashi of Judaism or St. Augustine of Christianity. Rumi is the 'true' mystic of Islam, and is accredited with being the founder of the sect called Dervishes, whose dancing has thrilled audiences around the world. El Eflaki was a historian documenting the acts of Islam's famous mystics and leaders.
The excuse for writing another history of the Reformation is the need for putting that movement in its proper relations to the economic and intellectual revolutions of the sixteenth century. The labor of love necessary for the accomplishment of this task has employed most of my leisure for the last six years and has been my companion through vicissitudes of sorrow and of joy.
Over 500 pages of the 'Hidden' messages of the New Testament. These books were stricken from the canon, but for what reason? political?
IN the following pages I have sought to satisfy a request, often made to me, to give a short but comprehensive view of the whole fabric of the Arcane mysteries, and affinity with the Masonic System; and I here take the opportunity of recording my protest against the sceptical tendencies of the present generation of the Moderns who are Masons, and against the efforts that are made, in season and out of season, to underrate the indubitable antiquity of the Masonic ceremonies.