The Mysteries of All Nations | Page 8

living Souls--Guardian Angel--Cause of the Flood--Magic--How
the Jews deceived the Devil--A Witch not permitted to live--Diviners,
Enchanters, Consulters with familiar Spirits and Necromancers proved
a Snare to Nations--Charms worn by the Jews--Singular Customs and
Belief--Prognostication--Allegorical Emblems--Marriage
Customs--Divers Ceremonies at Death and Burials--Divination among
all Nations--Observers of Times--Opinion concerning the Celestial
Bodies--Power of Witches--Wizards--Necromancers' Power to call up
the Dead.
Superstition has prevailed in every generation and country in the world.
There are people who think that even Adam and Eve were tainted with
this hateful delusion, and that their offspring of the second generation
entertained opinions opposed to true religion. That man, soon after the
Creation, became acquainted with and yielded to the doctrine of devils,
scarcely admits of doubt. Those who conversed with our first parents
must have learned from them the circumstances connected with the
temptation, fall, and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. It is not
unreasonable, then, to suppose that the serpent was looked upon at an
early period as something more than an ordinary earthly reptile. One
can imagine Adam and Eve, when wandering in perplexity and fear,
after their first great sin, starting at the sight of a serpent,--not being
certain whether they beheld a reptile of flesh merely, or looked upon
their old enemy that had betrayed them in their days of innocency. If
they looked with suspicion on the serpent, it is natural to suppose that
their children would learn to view this creeping animal as a creature
endowed with supernatural powers, by which it could bring about evil,

and perhaps good.
Cain, there is reason to conclude, departed from the true worship of the
Most High before his offering was refused, and ere he dipped his hands
in his brother's blood. In Genesis iv. 26 there is an implication that man
had forsaken the right and holy religion prior to the days of Seth. There
is an opinion that men soon began to worship the sun, moon, and stars,
and that subsequently they paid homage to objects which contributed to
their preservation and to things that might do them injury. The
wandering Jew, Benjamin, one of the greatest travellers in the East,
gives an interesting account of solar worship in early times. The
posterity of Cush, he tells us, were addicted to the contemplation of the
stars, and worshipped the sun as a god. Their towns were filled with
altars dedicated to this orb. At early morn the people rose, and ran out
of the cities to await the rising sun, to which on every altar there was a
consecrated image, not in the likeness of a man, but after the fashion of
the solar orb, formed by magic art. These artificial orbs, as soon as the
sun rose, took fire, and resounded with a great noise, to the joy of the
deluded devotees.
Many Jewish doctors have condescended upon the precise time when
man began to commit idolatry, and they name Enos as the first
star-worshipper. Arabian divines tell a story of Abraham being brought
up in a dark cave, and at his first coming forth he was so much struck
with the appearance of the sun, moon, and stars, that he worshipped
them; and there are people who imagine that in the Book of Job they
discover evidence of the heavenly host being adored in the time of the
old patriarch of Uz.
Some suppose that all the gods of antiquity were Egyptian kings, others
that they were Thessalian princes, others that they were Jewish
patriarchs; while not a few are of opinion that they were kings of the
several countries where they were worshipped. It has been supposed
that Saturn represented Adam; Rhea, Eve; Jupiter, Cain; Prometheus,
Abel; Apollo, Lamech; Mercury, Jabal; Bacchus, Noah; and Phaeton,
Elias. Others imagine that Saturn came in place of Noah; Pluto, of Sem;
Neptune, of Japheth; Bacchus, of Nimrod; and Apollo, of Phut. A third

class of thinkers maintain that all the heathen gods centre in Moses, and
the goddesses in Zipporah his wife, or in Miriam his sister. A fourth
class hold that Saturn was Abraham; Rhea, Sarah; Ceres, Keturah;
Pallas, Hagar; Jupiter, Isaac; Juno, Rebecca; Pluto, Ishmael; Typhon,
Jacob; and Venus, Rachel. Such are examples of imaginary
resemblances between real and fictitious persons or gods that never had
any existence except in the minds of fanatical romancers and a deluded
people, whose faith was kept alive by deception and artifice.
It was an early belief that ether, air, land, and water were full of living
spirits; and people believed, soon after man was created, that the souls
of just men, subsequent to death, had part of the universe committed to
them. This opinion being once established, assistance was sought from
the spirits of departed men and women, and efforts were made in