The Portland daily press., 1875-01-09
Recent Publications.

HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN RELIGION
AND SCIENCE. By John w. Draper Vol. XII
of 'sThe International Scientific Series.'' New
York: d. Appleton s. Co. For sale by Bailey &
Noyes.
To question which is engaging the earnest
attention of all thoughtful minds DR.. Draper
has Addressed himself in this volume. The
conflict between ecclesiastical authority and
the right of the human mind to think for it
self, conflict which has now been going on
forsupwards of twenty centuries, has at last
found its historian. 1t is doubtful if there be
man living better qualified by natural endow-
rnents and by education to describe the great
struggle than is DIR. Draper He has made
noble use of his opportunity and has givea us
work brilliantly dramatic, singularly instruct
i've and eminently impartial and candid.
The author has set himself no ordinary task.
The first chapter of his book opens with an
account of the rise of science among the Greeks
in the fourth century before the Christian
era. The Greek philosophers had become pro-
foundry impressed with the worthlessness of
the Olympian divinities. The Greek historians
used to considering the orderly course of polit-
ical affairs, and the connection of cause and
event, had begun to suspect that celestial in
terventions were fictitious. The Greek navi-
gators had learned that the islands of the Med
iterranean were not filled with enchantresses,
and gorgons and centaurs and harpies and
other supernatural wonders. The common peo-
pie, even, began to doubt the myths; for the
oracles were dumb, and Olympus itself had
been scaled and no gods were found there.
Thus the beginning of the great historic con-
fliet was in the Hellenic peninsula between the
schools of Greek philosophy and the dying
pagan religion. The Macedonian victories
which occurred about. this time, tended to
throw discredit upon the bestial gods of Greece
by promoting familiarity with the severe
monoIheism of the East. These and other
circumstances which followed, such as the es-
adjustment of the Roman empire with its
careless liberation of all forms of superstition,
and the practice of incarnation in the East
and dedication in the West by which unworthy
mortals of high station were raj ed to thrones
on Olympus, led to the discrediting and
breaking up of the old NEUROLOGICAL relig-
ion.
The second chapter is given to the origin of
Christianity, and to its degradation III der the
debasing influences of Constantine's state pol
icy and the pagan supersttions of the people.
A creed of compromises took the place of Ter
tulliaa's pure system of doctrine. As DR..
Draper says:
AS years passed on, the faith described by
Tertullian was transmitted into one more fash
ionable and more debased. 1t was incorpor-
ated with the old Greek mythology. Olympus
was restored, but the divinites- passed under
other names. The more powerful provinces in
sisted on the adoption of their time-ho' ored
conceptions. Views of the Trinity, in accord
ance with Egyptian traditions, were established
Not only was the alteration of Isis under a new
name restored, but even her image, standing
the crescent moon, reappeared. The we'll
wn effigy of that goddess, with the infant
in her arms, has descended to our days
Nautiful. artistic creations of the Ma
uonua anu Child. Such reservations of old
conceptions under novel forms were everywhere
received with delight When it was announced
to the Ephesians that the Council of that
place, headed by Cyril, had decreed that the
Virgin should be called ''the Mother of God"
with tears of joy they embraced the knees OF
their bishop; it was the old instinct peeping
out; their ancestors would have done the same
for Diana.
This attempt to conciliate worldly converts
by adopting their ideas and practices, did not
pass without remonstrance from those whose
intelligence discerned the motive. "You
have" says Faustus to Augustine, substituted
your agapa for the sacrifices of the pagans;
for their idols your martyrs, whom you serve
with the very same honors. You appease the
shades of the dead with wine and feasts; you
celebrate the solemn festivities of the Gentiles,
their caends, and their solstices; and, as to
their manners, those you have retained with
out any alteration. Nothing distinguishes you
from the pagans, except that you hold your as
semblies apart from them" Pagan observ-
ances were everywhere introduced. At we'd
diDgs it was the custom to sing hymns to We
nus.
Let us pause here a moment. and see in an
ticpation, to what depth of intellectual deg
radiation this policy of paganism eventually
led. Heather rites were adopted, pompous
and splendid ritual, gorgeous robes, mitres,
tiaras, wax tapers professional services, lus-
tratiOns, gold and silver vases, were introduced
The Roman lituus, the chief ensign of the
augurs, became the crozier Churches were
built over the tombs of martyrs, and conse-
Grated with rites borrowed from the ancient
laws of the Roman pontiffs. Festivals and
commentators of martyrs multiplied with
the rumberless fictitious discoveries of their
remains. Fasting became the grand means of
repelling the devil and appeasiDg God celibacy
the greatest of the virtues. Pilgrimages were
made to Palestine and the tombs of the mar
tyrs Quantities of dust and earth were brought
from the Holy Land and sold at enormous
prices, as antidotes against devils. The vir-
tues of coDsecrated water were upheld.
Images and relics were introduced into the
churches, and worshipped after the fashion of
the heather gods. 1t was given out that prod
igieS and miracles were to be seen in certain
places, as in the heather times. The happy
souls of departed Christians were invoked; 1T
was believed that they were wandering about
the world, or haunting their graves. There
was multiplication of temples, affairs, and
penitential garments. The festival of the
publication of the Virgin was invented to re-
move the uneasiness of heather converts on
account of the loss of their Lupercaia, or
feasts of Pan"
Thus, in the authors view, the rule of super
ctif rba
men" of those days, instead of allying them
selves with the science aud philosophy which
had shattered the old religion, incorporated
idolstrous beliefs into the creeds and heather
practices into the rites of the new church. The
transformation which Christianity thus under
went by its incorporation with paganism led to
its warfare with science and philosophy and
its forcble suppression of the schools of Alex
andria. 1t was constrained to this by the po
litical necessities of its position. AS the au-
thor observes:
''The Pagan party included many of the old
aristocratic families of the empire; it counted
among its adherents all the disciples of the old
philosophical schools. 1t looked down on its
antagonist with contempt. 1t asserted that
knowledge is to be obtained only by the labo-
rious exercise of human observation and hu-
man reason. The Christian party asserted that
all knowledge is to be found in the Scriptures
and in the traditions of the Church that, in
the written revelation, God had not only given
criterion of truth, but had furnished us all
that he intended us to know. The Scriptures,
therefore, contain the sum, the end of all
knowledge. The clergy, with the emperor at
their back, would endure DO intellectual COM
petition. Thus came into prominence what
were termed sacred and profane knowledge;
thus came into presence of each other two OPP
posing parties, one relying on human reason
as its guide, the other on revelation. Pagan
ism leaned for support on the learning of its
philosophers, Christianity on the inspiration
of its fathers. The Church thus set herself
forth as the depository and arbiter of knowl-
edge; she was ever ready TO resort to the civil
power TO compel obedience to her decisions.
She thus took course which determined her
whole future career; she became stumbling
block in the intellectual advancement of Eu.
rope for more than thousand years"
Such was the situation when the rivalries of
the three great metropolitan cities, Constanti-
nople, Alexandria and Rome, precpitated
conflict within the church itself. The adj
mixture of Christianity and Paganism, and
the gross materalstic conceptions of the ma
tute of the Almighty which political reasons
had led the emperors to look upon with favor