Mysticism and its Results

Mysticism and its Results, by John Delafield

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Title: Mysticism and its Results Being an Inquiry into the Uses and Abuses of Secrecy
Author: John Delafield
Release Date: August 14, 2007 [EBook #22314]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text.
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MYSTICISM
AND ITS RESULTS;
BEING AN INQUIRY INTO
THE USES AND ABUSES OF SECRECY,
AS DEVELOPED IN THE INSTRUCTION AND ACTS OF SECRET SOCIETIES, ASSOCIATIONS, OR CONFRATERNITIES, WHETHER SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS, OR POLITICAL, FROM THE BEGINNING OF HISTORY TO THE PRESENT DAY, AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE MASSES OF MANKIND, THEN AND NOW.
BY JOHN DELAFIELD, ESQ.,
OF MISSOURI, AUTHOR OF "AN INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF THE ANTIQUITIES OF AMERICA."
SAINT LOUIS: PUBLISHED BY EDWARDS & BUSHNELL, NO. 97 FOURTH STREET, TEN BUILDINGS.
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1857.
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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, BY JOHN DELAFIELD, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the District of Missouri.
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SAVAGE & McCREA, STEREOTYPERS, 13 Chambers Street, N.Y.
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TO MY ALMA MATER, COLUMBIA COLLEGE, NEW YORK, This Essay is respectfully Inscribed, BY THE WRITER.
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{5}
PREFACE.
"THE WORD WAS GOD." That "WORD IS TRUTH." Truth can never change, or it would contradict itself. Past, present, and future, must be governed by immutable laws. Experience is acquired by the careful study of history, and the present condition of all things. All is governed now by that same law of truth, which was from the beginning of the world, and ever shall be. What serious lessons, then, may be learned by a careful examination of past ages; and how useful may they not be to us and our children for future ages? We can only judge of that which is to come hereafter, by studying the past, and carefully noting the present.
This little book has collated some facts, perhaps, somewhat out of the usual range of reading; but which it is sincerely trusted may be of practical {6} utility. If it only induces thought, study, or research, by intellectual and honest minds, its object will have been attained. The writer can only claim the indulgence of the reader to consider the essay suggestive--not didactic. Many a far abler pen may enlarge upon and carry out the ideas presented. May it be
J. D.
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{7}
CONTENTS.
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CHAPTER I.
Secrecy; its Uses and Abuses.--Mystery; its Definition.--Mysticism, and its Definition. ... PAGE 9
CHAPTER II.
The Distinction between the Early Elohistic and Jehovahstic Ages of Primeval Patriarchal Times.--The Secrecy of Original Worship on Mountain Tops.--The Collation and Reconciliation of the Patriarchal Traditions brought together by Moses.--The Commencement of the Jehovahstic Age.--The Origin of Mythology.--The Magi; their Organization and Modes of Worship.--The Deification of Nimrod, and the Source of Political Power at its Beginning.--The Secret Writings they adopted.--The Dead Invokers.--The Mysteries of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. ... 16
CHAPTER III.
The Origin of the Cabbalist?; the Chaldeans, and their Antagonism to Patriarchal Tradition.--The Hand-Writing on Belshazzar's Wall.--The Secret Writings of the Cabbalist?.--How Daniel read the Same.--Ezra.--The Origin of the Masoretic Text.--Zoroaster.--His Reformation and Reconstruction of the Religion of the Magi.--Pythagoras, and his "League."--The Thugs.--The Druids. ... 41
{8} CHAPTER IV.
The Discipline of the Secret in the Origin of the Christian Church.--The Inquisition.--The Mystics.--The Rise of Monachism.--The Mendicant Orders.--The Orders of Knighthood.--The Jesuits, their Organization and History.--The Rosicrucians, &c. ... 71
CHAPTER V.
The Struggle between an alleged Jus Divinum Regum, and Popular Sovereignty.--And the Efforts now attempted to destroy our Grand Experiment of Self-Government.--Practical Results. ... 104
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{9} MYSTICISM, AND ITS RESULTS.
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CHAPTER I.
Secrecy; its Uses and Abuses.--Mystery; its Definition.--Mysticism, and its Definition.
It is not true, as has been sometimes said, that wherever there is secrecy there is error.
Secrecy, like most all else, hath its uses and abuses: its uses, as developed in modesty and domestic virtue, in religious meditation, self-examination, and prayer, and in prudence in the affairs of life: its abuses, in prudery, asceticism, superstitious awe, undue veneration of power, and when used as a cloud to conceal crime so hideous that nothing but the truth of God, vindicated by human laws founded thereon, directed by wisdom, can dispel it.
Virtue and modesty shrink from public gaze. Each looks alone to its innate sense, the gift of God, and