Religious History

The Dorians derived their origin from those districts in which the Grecian nation bordered towards the north upon numerous and dissimilar races of barbarians. As to the tribes which dwelt beyond these boundaries we are indeed wholly destitute of information; nor is there the slightest trace of any memorial or tradition that the Greeks originally came from those quarters. On these frontiers, however, the events took place which effected an entire alteration in the internal condition of the whole Grecian people, and here were given many of those impulses, of which the effects were so long and generally experienced.

The Dragons leading up to the steps of the temples and palaces of the Manchu emperors, and the superb dragon-screen guarding the approach to one of the royal palaces, are but two of the innumerable examples of the universal former belief in these mythical animals, and of the still prevailing beliefs among the common people of China.

The Icelandic Eddas are the only vernacular record of Germanic heathendom as it developed during the four centuries which in England saw the destruction of nearly all traces of the heathen system. The so-called Elder Edda is a collection of some thirty poems, mythic and heroic in substance, interspersed with short pieces of prose, which survives in a thirteenth-century MS., known as the Codex Regius, discovered in Iceland in 1642.

The sacred wisdom of the priests of ancient Egypt and the experiences of the soul after death: one of the most important books in history. Includes full hieroglyphic text along with a transliteration of sounds, word-for-word translation; a separate smooth translation.

Egypt is unique in its place in history, for that land and people, has had the stamp of every major religion upon its culture. This book explores some of those influences, whether they originated in Egypt, were forced on Egypt, or were brought in by other cultures and missionaries. Examining this book objectively it is not hard to see that the Jesus of the Christians played out the fulfillment of the ancient Egyptian religions and prophecies.

Study the most primitive and simple religion which is actually known, to make an analysis of it, and to attempt an explanation of it. A religious system may be said to be the most primitive which we can observe when it fulfils the two following conditions: in the first place, when it is found in a society whose organization is surpassed by no others in simplicity;1 and secondly, when it is possible to explain it without making use of any element borrowed from a previous religion.