Apparitions; Dreams; Occultism -- Early works to 1900; Parapsychology -- Early works to 1900
ASTR. The mythologist and pagan may cite their tables, and worship their
idols in the recesses of their pagodas and choultries; but some idea of
the Deity has been unfolded to the mind of all. Even the eastern princes
have had some glimpses of the true faith, and shahs and caliphs were
once engaged in building their Nestorine or Christian churches.
The profane Chinese has, it is true, called his realm the _celestial
empire_; Fohi, who is believed to have reigned three thousand years
before Christ, established his “Iconolatria” or “idolatry,” and Si Lao
Kiun struck at the establishment of _polytheism_, but the purer theology
of Confucius prevailed over his rival.
The Deity, indeed, is the essence of every creed, for all believe in a
great spirit as well as an immortal mind and a paradise. Like the
reasonings of natural philosophy, our notions and epithets of the great
Creator certainly differ, but in all there is faith in his perfection.
Xam Ti is the great spirit of the Chinese, as Woden is the god of the
Gothic races, and Brahma, or Alla, or the Kitchi Manitou, or even the
sun, the source of light, and heat, and joy to the creation, are the
deities of other nations. Nor may we wonder more that the Ghebir, and
the Peruvian, and the Natches should worship their orb of fire, than
that the Irish should, on the morning of their _Beltane_, light their
peat fires to the sun.
The doctrines of the Brahmins all attest their creed of _theism_, if we
interpret aright the evidence of the learned _Pundits_ of Benares,
especially in the Gentoo code; and the records of Abul Fazel in the
“Baghvat Geeta,” an episode in the poem of the “Mahabarat,” written to
prove the unity. The devout Christian will deem this creed a woful
error, but he will confess his admiration of their sublime notion of the
divine attribute, which Colonel Dow has thus imparted to us: “As God is
immaterial, he is above all conception; as he is invisible, he can have
no form; but from what we behold of his works, we may conclude that he
is eternal, omnipotent, knowing all things, and present everywhere.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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