Forlong - Rivers of Life

Serpent and Phallic Worship.
objects; and further, that only in this generation has competent research been
brought to bear upon the discovery of these grosser faiths in Europe, so that we
may yet hope to see her religions as thoroughly unveiled and accounted for as those
of Asia. With these remarks I must now pass on to the last section of this very
long chapter.
At the risk of troubling my readers with what will, I fear, be occasionally a repetition
of some of the foregoing, I must now go briefly into the crucial tests of the roots
or radicals which appear to lie at the bottom of all words which dominate in the
literature of Faiths, and what words do not? see Bryant’s Mythology—Radicals. I
can offer, I know, no new ideas here to the learned, nor to any who have studiously
read Higgins, Bryant, Faber, many good French authors, and that severe smiter-down
of old ’doxies, Dr Inman; yet I may perhaps enlighten those who have not, and reach some
dark, though populous communities, where the above learned writings have not yet, and
are not likely to generally circulate; anyhow I must add to the truths which have been
spoken by many learned men, the testimony of one who has not so much picked up his
knowledge from the classic stores of western nations, as from association with the principals
and active promoters of living and energetic faiths, and observant personal intercourse
with the swarming multitudes who frequent the temples of the East. Active
duty in various onerous posts in the East have stood in the way of my obtaining much
Western mythological erudition; but deeply interested during the best part of a lifetime
in all the highest as well as mundane interests of my fellow-men, and ever striving to
probe to the root their highest hopes and fears, as well as those deep doubts or murmurings
which the thoughtful of all religions alike have, but moatly shrink to expose,
I may perhaps be able to give wide testimony valuable of its kind.
After we have studied the outer developments of a faith, we seem in writing, speaking,
and thinking of it, to be ever glibly repeating certain terms, phrases, or sentences,
of which, if we are studious and earnest, it is our duty to investigate the history and
roots. Thus we begin to ask, how arose, and what were the original meanings of “Holy
Spirit,” “Regeneration,” or “New-Birth,” “Salvation,” “Redemption,” “Baptism,” “Kingdom
of Heaven,” “Son of Man,” “Son of God;” “the Messiah or Anointed One,” “the
King of Israel,” “The Rock,” “the Pillar of Truth,” “the Sun of Righteousness;”
“Rock of Ages,” “the Mountain of the Lord” (Jahveh or Adonai), “Zion,” “Zeus,”
“Olympus,” “the Living Stone,” “the Stone of Witness,” “the Sun-stone;” “the
Tree of Life,” or “Life-giving Tree,” “the Vine,” “the Branch,” “the Corner Stone,”
“Heaven,” “Hell,” “the Abyss,” &c.; then such leading names as Adam, Eve, IO,
IOni, A-bram, Ab-Ra-Ham, B’ Ram. A, Fire, Sar, Sarah, “Mar,” “Mary,”
”Meria,” “Water of Life,” “Fertility,” “Ophis,” “Serpent,” Python, Pal, Phal,
Pan, Phan, Palas, Phallus, &c. &c.
All faiths deal in these terms, and most have certain objects representing them,
but more or less veiled, according to the ideas and civilization of the times. The
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