New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-06-05
WHEN A GODDESS REIGNED.
MRS. CANDLES VIEWS ON THE ORIGIN
OF RELIGION.

with q difference. The poets talked OF the
reign OF Saturn and Of fields that gave theiF
fertility v. thout the furrowing OF the plough
But Mrs CANDLES golden age knew no sue"
horrtd being as Saturn. Its god was also
goddess. II not exclusively goddess. ana i's
law was that mother-right, OF when rag
mentary "reminiscences are still to be iouho
among savage races. These savages. as rue'
have traditions Of a past mucn superior j."
every way to their present harsh ana measre
way Of life. Mrs. Gamble maintains. IN eHee''
that these traditions have a OASIS Oh uu'N'
There was time when the human race was
much better than IL has ever been SINCE WHEN
II had attained the deepest knowledge Oh al
the mysteries Of life. when Its learning was al
most divine, when its social life and It's poi''cS
were perfect. nearly So when kings were u''-
known and human life was pure. This was
long while ago. The ideal condition OF a1airs
was destroyed by religious controversy Oh
which there are dim reminders In the UNIVERSAL
legend Of the Deluge, in the tale OF the ROVER
of Babel and in the account OF the dispersion
OF the Aryan races The myth OF the Deiage
is of course. quite untrustworthy as hteral
transcript Of history. What is true IN II Is the
indication which it gives Of a widespread con-
fict between two great parties. In which one
was not merely destroyed. but suffered the
added indignity Of having Its history defaced
by its opponent. Apparently Mrs. Gamble does
not admit that the righteous were those VINO
escaped the so-called Deluge. nor again the ones
who suffered worst under the shadow OF Babel
nor above ALL those who were driven from the
sacred paradise Of the Aryans as described IN
the Avesta- These defeated ones were those
who held to the benign traditions or their an
cestors, who would have perpetuated the won
drous learning Of the earliest ages, had tney
not been driven forth to begin life anew IN the
m inner which was later supposed to be the
actual first stage Of human existence Deprived
Of all that had made life easy and pleasant
they were doomed to create their civilization
anew on soil which grudgingly rewarded their
efforts. 1t Is wonder. then. that their oppo-
nents not only triumphed in the first conflict
but later in drawing the defeated party gradu-
ally into harmony with their own views.
On scientific grounds there IS some reason 10
question the authority of such writer's as God
frey Higgins. Hargrave Jennings Payne
Knight, c. S. Faber or the highly imaginative
Forlong. But Mrs Gamble has no misgivings
Language itself has preserved some indications
Of the prehistoric contest over the sex or the
deity which she finds 10 have colored the re-
who, as Is said Of Emerson. would prefer TO
use the pronoun It in speaking of the Deity and
would gladly eliminate all thought OF corporeal-
ity and bodily form from their idea of divinity
will find that Mrs. Gamble has solved the ques-
ton, not by denying sex, but by uniting both
sexes in the divine being Such must have been
the first religious creed of humanity. unless it
was preceded by q faith in female deity alone
lust as the divided life of the sexes on earth
was preceded by a vast geological period In
which all life was confined TO cells that hao
mothers but no fathers There was bound 70
be a dispute, first, the point whether femi-
ninity was worthy Of exclusive worship; then.
when masculinity had gained this point. on the
further question whether the Ewig-Weibliche
should not be relegated TO an inferior place, and
finally be excluded altogether. Apparently Mrs
Gamble finds no record Of the very earliest or
this series Of conflicts. But she is very clear
about the war in which the people who insisted
on speaking Of the supreme divine power In the
masculine gender or, at all events, of using
signs which meant the same thing, permanently
gained the upper hand. She calls the devotees
Of the Eternal Womanly, Yongas, and their
opponents, Singajas. terms more or less IA
mar to the Hindoo lore of the present day.
In this ancient war the Yonites were for the
most part driven away toward the setting sun.
They reappeared in the Ionians Of history who
II they had been true TO their own past would
have persisted in the worship Of Gala. the Great
Earth-Mother, whether they chose to think OF
her as Demeter or as Athena But they were
recreant, and Athena, the personifcation OF
wisdom. relegated TO place inferior to
that Of mere brutal male force In the person OF
Zeus
Meanwhile things went from bad to worse with
the victorious worshippers Of the masculine gen
der. In order to bolster up their faith. they
gradually worked out all those details Of sun
worship serpent worship. phallic worship. and
general brutality with which the world has been
troubled ever since. True, the Yonites succeeded
In purifying sun-worship by adding TO IT the
mystic thought Of the divine motherhood OF a
virgin but even this was vitiated by the choice
Of the child as the object of divine honors In
preference to the mother Woman. who should
have had her place In every divine triad, was
excluded, and made a mere intercessor In this
way humanity missed the best lines of evolu-
ton. What is known Of history previous TO the
seventh century before Christ appears 10 be q
dreary record Of decadence. But in that Gen.
fury human affairs improved somewhat, owing
to a persistent attempt on the part Of people
who called themselves followers Of Zoroaster tt
purify religion. seconded soon afterward as they
were by Buddha in India and Confucius In
China.
Mrs. Gamble suggests that the Ormazd Of the
Persians was at first Of feminine gender. and
that, in fact. all ancient attempts at religion;
reform looked back in a way TO the sex Of the
Great Earth Mother. whose festival is on the
whole the most archaic thing known to man
kind Here she has the whole group OF my
biologists in corner. Even Professor MAJ
Miller. persistent devotee as he is of Dawn, and
Sun and Lightning has to concede the universe
worship Of the earth as the mother Of all things
But after all, vagaries Of grammatical gende
NAV have something to do with the matter. TIT
Egyptians, who. according TO Herodotus always
mt everything in lust the reverse order to tina