The Portland daily press., 1874-07-23
The Dawn OF Creation in the far East.

The theogOny of the japanese, says wr-
ter in ST. James Magazine, bears a strong
and'family likeness to that Of the Greeks.
The Sintoo creed, or more correetly speaking,
the Kami-nomitsi creed, held that tue world
was originally Chaos; aud thence sprang
Earth and the Plain OIL High-HeaveD. al
most corresponding to Gaa and her son nus
baud Uranus, and later god. the Architect
Of he Heavenly Vault, a soft of divine
Ghibeiti, and in attributes suggestive of Hy-
p"rion, the luminous expanse, though not
like Hyperion in being the immediate parent
of the Lawn ard of the Sun and Moon.
FroI1 the Plain-of High Heaven sprang three
selfcreaied divinities; who, in conjunction
with Earth and the Archiiect-o.-iheH Heaven
ly Vault conotiluted the first orfianized di-
whites of heaven The deity Earth. or mole
properly the God of-tbe Beautiful Reedbud,
came into existence as did also he Arch itect
ofthe Vault-of Heaven. on the sepal alton OF
the Earth from the armament, the Japtnese
story oil creation somewhat following the
Bible narrative in this particular. The idea
of the earth, too, even t. later period, was
that of something without form and Void
for frcm the earth god came. by development.
the God-of-the-Film-L1nd. the eastern Iape
tus; and this god had two children. also COOS,
the story so tar following the Greek one as to
point to the union of Iapetus, the child OF
Uranus aud G@a, with Clymene, the daugh
ter of Oceanus ard Tethys, the offspring OF
the God -,i-the-Firm-Land answering TO Alias
and frometbeus, the large mountain ranges.
The God-of-the Firm Land relgned over the
earth for millions OF years, and was succeeded
by his two soDs, who each regned for SIM
iarly lengthy period; myth that embraces
geological facts which Rave been recognized
by scieI tfic men in the West during few
recent generations only. A host OF gods fol-
...1 it.rtin fhn
ties of Heaven. To this stage of the mythol-
oey the great essential OF poetry, 10 wit, love,
has been totally and conspicuously absent
i here is no hint OF love between the Plain of
Heaven aud earth, Or between the Architect
of Heaven and Earth; but the virgin Earth,
the immaculate Reed-bud. unloved and un-
loving, brings forth simply by development.
But the warm loving nature. the capacity
for sweet pain, ano the tender wooing are all
contained in the last representative OF the
seven dyuasties, in lza-na gino mikOto, who,
by his bride became the faith r of Japan; the
egotisical element appearing here, tor Japan
became the center or nucleus OF all other
counties. Besides Japan, Iza-na-sino-ml-
koto had other children. millions OF gods for
the development OF the countries of the coun-
tries and the sun and the moon, and the
element of material things; these last, of
course being subordinate to the greater gods,
such as the sun and the moon. Ia course OF
tine the soul OF man was deemed the equal
of the Kami, spirit or genius, OF the elements
of material things; and so the value OF the
soul being appreciated there arose the neces-
sty for a spiritual ministry, a priesthood.
The priests beca ne the Kaminusi. that is to
say, the ministers of spirits; beautiful idea
which was fully aud perfectly exempfied IN
the command, "Let him that is greatest
among you be your minister" your servant.
In Iza-na-g -gino-mikoto and his bride is dis
covered striking resemblance to Jupiter and
Juno; and in the mill ms OF gods and the
elements of material things can be dscerned
the numerous ofsprings Of Jupiter in their
intellectual or physical sig,fica ton; such,
for instance, as Hebe, health; Latcna, pro-
ficiency; Minerva, practical wisdom; Irene,
peace; Eunomia; good order; Urania, as
tronomy; Polyhmnia, harmony, etc.; Pro-
serpine, the frui,-producDg principle, and
Mercury, commerce; and from the union of
Jupiter with different portions of the earth,
heroes and iudueS