My American Discovery: November 2020

Friday, November 27, 2020

FFL Quotes: History of England, David Hume, 1762, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 4a, The Becket controversy, Part 6

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10574/pg10574-images.html

NOTE: The chapters in the text of Hume's History of England are not subdivided into Sections, as my posts will be. The Sections will broadly (not always exactly) correspond with the subdivisions of the LibraVox recording of the book to which I am listening.

Abuses of the civil power against a single individual

I'm convinced this was an important conflict, especially when it come to question of civil vs ecclesiastical power. So I organized the text with Sub-Headings to help me understand the proceedings.

ENGLISH PUBLIC RESPONSE TO HENRY ATTEMPTS

"The violent and unjust prosecution of Becket had a natural tendency to turn the public favour on his side and to make men overlook

his former ingratitude toward the king, and

his departure from all oaths and engagements,

as well as the enormity of those ecclesiastical privileges, of which he affected to be the champion. [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics and formatting added)

HENRY V. BECKET MADE INTERNATIONAL NEWS

"[...] There were many other reasons which procured his countenance and protection in foreign countries[:]

Philip, Earl of Flanders [in France], and Lewis, King of France, jealous of the rising greatness of Henry, were well pleased to give him disturbance in his government; and, forgetting that this was the common cause of princes, they affected to pity extremely the condition of the exiled primate; and the latter even honoured him with a visit at Soissons, in which city he had invited him to fix his residence.

The pope [still exiled Alexander, also in France at the time], whose interests were more immediately concerned in supporting him [Lewis or Becket?], gave a cold reception to a magnificent embassy which Henry sent to accuse him [Becket]; while Becket himself, who had come to Sens in order to justify his cause before the sovereign pontiff, was received with the greatest marks of distinction. [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics, bold, and formatting added)

HENRY'S REACTION TO POPE, GOES AFTER BECKET AGAIN, HENRY ATTEMPT#5

"[...] The king, in revenge, sequestered the revenues of Canterbury; and,

by a conduct which might be esteemed arbitrary, had there been at that time any regular check on royal authority,

he banished all the primate's relations and domestics, to the number of four hundred, whom he obliged to swear, before their departure, that they would instantly join their patron. [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics, bold, and formatting added)

POPE'S (not Becket's) REACTION TO HENRY ATTEMPT#5

" But this policy, by which Henry endeavoured to reduce Becket sooner to necessity, lost its effect: the pope, when they [the relations of Becket] arrived beyond sea, absolved them from their oath, and distributed them among the convents in France and Flanders:

a residence was assigned to Becket himself in the convent of Pontigny, where he lived for some years in great magnificence, partly from a pension granted him on the revenues of the abbey, partly from remittances made him by the French monarch. [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics and formatting added)

FFL Quotes: History of England, David Hume, 1762, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3d, The Becket controversy, Part 4

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10574/pg10574-images.html

Abuses of the civil power against a single individual

I'm convinced this was an important conflict, especially when it come to question of civil vs ecclesiastical power. So I organized the text with Sub-Headings to help me understand the proceedings.

HENRY ABOVE-AND-BEYOND#1

"The king was not content with this sentence, however violent and oppressive. Next day, he demanded [another sentence] of Becket the sum of three hundred pounds, which the primate had levied upon the honours of [the castles of] Eye and Berkham, while in his possession. [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics added)

BECKET RESPONSE to HENRY ABOVE-AND-BEYOND#1

"[...] Becket,

after premising that he was not obliged to answer to this suit, because it was not contained in his summons;

after remarking that he had expended more than that sum in the repair of those castles, and of the royal palace at London; [if Henry's demand was short of the amount needed to square the account, according to Becket's memory]

expressed however his resolution, that money should not be any ground of quarrel between him and his sovereign; he agreed to pay the sum; and immediately gave surety for it."

HENRY ABOVE-AND-BEYOND#2, 3, 4

"[...] In the subsequent meeting, the king demanded five hundred marks, which, he affirmed, he had lent Becket during the war at Toulouse [h];

and another sum in the same amount for which that prince had been surety for him to a Jew.

Immediately after these two claims, he preferred a third of still greater importance: he required him to give in the accounts of his administration while chancellor, and to pay the balance due from the revenues of all the prelacies, abbeys, and baronies, which had, during that time, been subjected to his management. [...]" [an audit]

HUME's COMMENTARY ON THE AUDIT

"It is apparent, from the known character of Henry, and from the usual vigilance of his government, that, when he promoted Becket to the see of Canterbury, he was on good grounds, well pleased with his administration in the former high office with which he had entrusted him; and that, even if that prelate had dissipated money beyond the income of his place, the king was satisfied that his expenses were not blameable, and had in the main been calculated for his service. Two years had since elapsed; no demand had, during that time, been made upon him; it was not till the quarrel arose concerning ecclesiastical privileges that the claim was started, and the primate was, of a sudden, required to produce accounts of such intricacy and extent before a tribunal which had showed a determined resolution to ruin and oppress him. To find sureties that he should answer so boundless and uncertain a claim, which in the king's estimation amounted to forty-four thousand marks, was impracticable; and Becket's suffragans were extremely at a loss what counsel to give him in such a critical emergency.[...]"

BECKET'S RESPONSE TO HENRY'S ABOVE-AND-BEYOND#4, Part 1

"By the advice of the Bishop of Winchester, he offered two thousand marks as a general satisfaction for all demands: but this offer was rejected by the king.

Some prelates exhorted him to resign his see, on condition of receiving an acquittal:

others were of opinion that he ought to submit himself entirely to the kings mercy:

but the primate, thus pushed to the utmost, had too much courage to sink under oppression: he determined to brave all his enemies, to trust to the sacredness of his character for protection, to involve his cause with that of God and religion, and to stand the utmost efforts of royal indignation.

BECKET'S RESPONSE TO HENRY'S ABOVE-AND-BEYOND#4, Part 2

1) "After a few days spent in deliberation, Becket went to church and said mass, where he had previously ordered that the introit to the communion service should begin with these words, PRINCES SAT, AND SPAKE AGAINST ME; the passage appointed for the martyrdom of St. Stephen, whom the primate thereby tacitly pretended to resemble, in his sufferings for the sake of righteousness."

2) "[...] He went thence to court, arrayed in his sacred vestments: as soon as he arrived within the palace gate, he took the cross into his own hands, bore it aloft as his protection, and marched, in that posture, into the royal apartments. The king, who was in an inner room, was astonished at this parade, by which the primate seemed to menace him and his court with the sentence of excommunication; and he sent some of the prelates to remonstrate with him on account of such audacious behaviour. [...]"

3) "[...] These prelates complained to Becket, that, by subscribing himself to the constitutions of Clarendon, he had seduced them to imitate his example; and that now, when it was too late, he pretended to shake off all subordination to the civil power, and appeared desirous of involving them in the guilt which must attend any violation of those laws, established by their consent, and ratified by their subscriptions.

Becket replied,

that he had indeed subscribed the constitutions of Clarendon, LEGALLY, WITH GOOD FAITH, AND WITHOUT FRAUD OR RESERVE; but in these words was virtually implied a salvo for the rights of their order, which, being connected with the cause of God and his church, could never be relinquished by their oaths and engagements:

that if he and they had erred in resigning the ecclesiastical privileges, the best atonement they could now make was to retract their consent, which, in such a case, could never be obligatory, and to follow the pope's authority, who had solemnly annulled the constitutions of Clarendon, and had absolved them from all oaths which they had taken to observe them:

that a determined resolution was evidently embraced to oppress the church;

the storm had first broken upon him; for a slight offence, and which too was falsely imputed to him, he had been tyrannically condemned to a grievous penalty; a new and unheard-of claim was since started, in which he could expect no justice; and he plainly saw, that he was the destined victim, who, by his ruin, must prepare the way for the abrogation of all spiritual immunities;

that he strictly inhibited them who were his suffragans from assisting at any such trial, or giving their sanction to any sentence against him; he put himself and his see under the protection of the supreme pontiff; and appealed to him against any penalty which his iniquitous judges might think proper to inflict upon him: and that, however terrible the indignation of so great a monarch as Henry, his sword could only kill the body; while that of the church, intrusted into the hands of the primate, could kill the soul, and throw the disobedient into infinite and eternal perdition."

HUME'S COMMENTARY
"Appeals to the pope, even in ecclesiastical causes, had been abolished by the constitutions of Clarendon, and were become criminal by law; but an appeal in a civil cause, such as the king's demand upon Becket, was a practice altogether new and unprecedented; it tended directly to the subversion of the government, and could receive no colour of excuse, except from the determined resolution, which was but too apparent, in Henry and the great council, to effectuate, without justice, but under colour of law, the total ruin of the inflexible primate. The king, having now obtained a pretext so much more plausible for his violence, would probably have pushed the affair to the utmost extremity against him; but Becket gave him no leisure to conduct the prosecution. [...]"

FFL Quotes: History of England, David Hume, 1762, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3c, The Becket controversy, Part 3

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10574/pg10574-images.html

Abuses of the civil power against a single individual

I'm convinced this was an important conflict, especially when it come to question of civil vs ecclesiastical power. So I organized the text with Sub-Headings to help me understand the proceedings.

HENRY ATTEMPT#2a

"[...] and Henry hastened to make him feel the effects of an obstinacy which he deemed so criminal. He instigated John, mareschal of the exchequer, to sue Becket in the archiepiscopal court for some lands, part of the manor of Pageham; and to appeal thence to the king's court for justice. [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics added)

BECKET RESPONSE TO HENRY ATTEMPT#2a

"[...] On the day appointed for trying the cause, the primate sent four knights to represent certain irregularities in John's appeal; and at the same time to excuse himself, on account of sickness, for not appearing personally that day in the court. [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762

OUTCOME OF HENRY ATTEMPT#2a

"[...] This slight offence (if it even deserve the name) was represented as a grievous contempt; the four knights were menaced and with difficulty escaped being sent to prison, as offering falsehoods to the court. [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762

HENRY ATTEMPT#2b

"[...] And Henry, being determined to prosecute Becket to the utmost, summoned, at Northampton, a great council [of barons and clergy], which he purposed to make the instrument of his vengeance against the inflexible prelate. [...]

The barons, notwithstanding, in the great council, voted whatever sentence he was pleased to dictate to them; and the bishops themselves, who undoubtedly bore a secret favour to Becket, and regarded him as the champion of their privileges, concurred with the rest in the design of oppressing their primate."

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics added)

BECKET'S DEFENSE TO HENRY ATTEMPT#2b

"[...] In vain did Becket urge that[:]

his court was proceeding with the utmost regularity and justice in trying the maresehal's cause;

[that the maresehal's case] would appear, from the sheriff's testimony, to be entirely unjust and iniquitous:

that he himself [that is, Becket] had discovered no contempt of the king's court; but, on the contrary, by sending four knights to excuse his absence, had virtually acknowledged its authority:

that he also, in consequence of the king's summons, personally appeared at present in the great council, ready to justify his cause against the mareschal, and to submit his conduct to their inquiry and jurisdiction:

that even should it be found that he had been guilty of non-appearance, the laws had affixed a very slight penalty to that offence:

and that, as he was an inhabitant of Kent, where his archiepiscopal palace was seated, he was by law entitled to some greater indulgence than usual in the rate of his fine. [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics and formatting added)

HENRY'S RESPONSE TO BECKET'S DEFENSE TO HENRY ATTEMPT#2b

"[...] Notwithstanding these pleas, [Becket] was condemned as guilty of a contempt of the king's court, and as wanting in the fealty which he had sworn to his sovereign [not because of the land question]; all his goods and chattels were confiscated;

and that this triumph over the church might be carried to the utmost, Henry, Bishop of Winchester [the brother of the prior King Stephen], the prelate who had been so powerful in the former reign, was, in spite of his remonstrances, obliged, by order of the court, to pronounce the sentence against him. The primate [that is, Becket] submitted to the decree; and all the prelates, except Folliot, Bishop of London, who paid court to the king by this singularity, became sureties for him. [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics and formatting added)

HUME'S COMMENTARY

"[...] It is remarkable that seven Norman barons voted in this council; and we may conclude, with some probability, that a like practice had prevailed in many of the great councils summoned since the Conquest. For the contemporary historian, who has given us a full account of these transactions, does not mention this circumstance as anywise singular; and Becket, in all his subsequent remonstrances with regard to the severe treatment which he had met with, never founds any objection on an irregularity which to us appears very palpable and flagrant. So little precision was there at that time in the government and constitution!"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics added)

FFL Quotes: History of England, David Hume, 1762, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3b, The Becket controversy, Part 2

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10574/pg10574-images.html

Abuses of the civil power against a single individual

I'm convinced this was an important conflict, especially when it come to question of civil vs ecclesiastical power. So I organized the text with Sub-Headings to help me understand the proceedings.

HENRY ATTEMPT#1,

"[...] by means of that very power which Becket made such merit in supporting. He applied to the pope [Alexander III], that he should grant the commission of legate in his dominions to the Archbishop of York [instead of Canterbury, where Beckett was]; [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762

RESPONSE TO HENRY ATTEMPT#1

"[...] but [Pope Alexander III], as politic as he,

though he granted the commission,

annexed a clause, that it should not empower the legate to execute any act of prejudice of the Archbishop of Canterbury [currently Beckett]; [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics & formatting added)

OUTCOME OF HENRY ATTEMPT#1

"[...] and the king, finding how fruitless such an authority [that is, having the Bishop of York be the representative for the Pope in England, but without power to further weaken Canterbury] would prove , sent back the commission by the same messenger that brought it."

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762

BECKET RESPONSE to OUTCOME OF HENRY ATTEMPT#1

"The primate, however, who found himself still exposed to the king's indignation, endeavoured twice to escape secretly from the kingdom, but was as often detained by contrary winds; [...]"

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762

FFL Quotes: History of England, David Hume, 1762, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3a, The Becket controversy, Part 1

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10574/pg10574-images.html

Abuses of the civil power against a single individual

I'm convinced this was an important conflict, especially when it come to question of civil vs ecclesiastical power. So I organized the text with Sub-Headings to help me understand the proceedings.

"[...] At last, Richard de Hastings, Grand Prior of the Templars in England, threw himself on his knees before him; and with many tears entreated him, if he paid any regard, either to his own safety or that of the church, not to provoke, by a fruitless opposition, the indignation of a great monarch, who was resolutely bent on his purpose, and who was determined to take full revenge on every one that should dare to oppose him. Becket, finding himself deserted by all the world, even by his own brethren, was at last obliged to comply; and he promised, LEGALLY, WITH GOOD FAITH, AND WITHOUT FRAUD OR RESERVE, to observe the [constitutions of Clarendon]; and he took an oath to that purpose."

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics added)

"[...] but Alexander, who, though he had owed the most important obligations to the king, plainly saw that these laws [contained in the Constitutions of Clarendon] were calculated to establish the independency of England on the papacy, and of the royal power on the clergy, condemned them in the strongest terms; abrogated, annulled, and rejected them. There were only six articles, the least important, which, for the sake of peace, he was willing to ratify."

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics added)

BECKETT FLIPS BACK

"Becket, when he observed that he might hope for support in an opposition [against the Constitutions of Clarendon following their dismissal by Pope Alexander III], expressed the deepest sorrow for his compliance; and endeavoured to engage all the other bishops in a confederacy to adhere to their common rights, and to the ecclesiastical privileges, in which he represented the interest and honour of God to be so deeply concerned. He redoubled his austerities, in order to punish himself for his criminal assent to the constitutions of Clarendon: he proportioned his discipline to the enormity of his supposed offence; and he refused to exercise any part of his archiepiscopal function, till he should receive absolution from the pope; which was readily granted him. Henry, informed of his present dispositions, resolved to take vengeance for this refractory behaviour; and he attempted to crush him, [...]

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics & formatting added)

"[...] The king had raised Becket from a low station to the highest offices, had honoured him with his countenance and friendship, had trusted to his assistance in forwarding his favourite project against the clergy; and when he found him become of a sudden his most rigid opponent, while every one beside complied with his will, rage at the disappointment, and indignation against such signal ingratitude, transported him beyond all bounds of moderation; and there seems to have entered more of passion than of justice, or even of policy, in this violent prosecution."

David Hume, History of England, Vol.1, Ch.8, Section 3, 1762 (italics added)

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

QUOTES: Flavius Josephus, Antiquity of the Jews, trans. William Whiston, 93 BC, Vol.1, Book 1, Ch.1, Part 1b

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2848/2848-h/2848-h.htm

"Verse-by-Verse" COMPARISON: The Fall of Adam and Eve

"God therefore commanded that Adam and his wife should eat of all the rest of the plants, but to abstain from the tree of knowledge; and foretold to them, that if they touched it, it would prove their destruction. [...]"

Flavius Josephus, Antiquity of the Jews, trans. William Whiston, Vol.1, Book 1, Ch.1, 93 BC

15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Old Testament, King James Version, Genesis 2:15-17

15 And I, the Lord God, took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it.
16 And I, the Lord God, commanded the man, saying: Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Pearl of Great Price, Moses 3:15-17

---

"But while all the living creatures had one language, at that time the serpent, which then lived together with Adam and his wife, shewed an envious disposition, at his supposal of their living happily, and in obedience to the commands of God; and imagining, that when they disobeyed them, they would fall into calamities, he persuaded the woman, out of a malicious intention, to taste of the tree of knowledge, telling them, that in that tree was the knowledge of good and evil; which knowledge, when they should obtain, they would lead a happy life; nay, a life not inferior to that of a god: by which means he overcame the woman, and persuaded her to despise the command of God. Now when she had tasted of that tree, and was pleased with its fruit, she persuaded Adam to make use of it also."
Flavius Josephus, Antiquity of the Jews, trans. William Whiston, Vol.1, Book 1, Ch.1, 93 BC (italics added)

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Old Testament, King James Version, Genesis 3:1-6

1 And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.
2 But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me—Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.
3 Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;
4 And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice.
5 And now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which I, the Lord God, had made.
6 And Satan put it into the heart of the serpent, (for he had drawn away many after him,) and he sought also to beguile Eve, for he knew not the mind of God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world.
7 And he said unto the woman: Yea, hath God said—Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? (And he spake by the mouth of the serpent.)
8 And the woman said unto the serpent: We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden;
9 But of the fruit of the tree which thou beholdest in the midst of the garden, God hath said—Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
10 And the serpent said unto the woman: Ye shall not surely die;
11 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
12 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it became pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make her wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and also gave unto her husband with her, and he did eat.

Pearl of Great Price, Moses 4:1-12

---

"[...] Upon this they perceived that they were become naked to one another; and being ashamed thus to appear abroad, they invented somewhat to cover them; for the tree sharpened their understanding; and they covered themselves with fig-leaves; and tying these before them, out of modesty, they thought they were happier than they were before, as they had discovered what they were in want of. [...]"

Flavius Josephus, Antiquity of the Jews, trans. William Whiston, Vol.1, Book 1, Ch.1, 93 BC (italics added)

7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
Old Testament, King James Version, Genesis 3:7

13 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they had been naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
Pearl of Great Price, Moses 4:13

---

"But when God came into the garden, Adam, who was wont before to come and converse with him, being conscious of his wicked behavior, went out of the way. This behavior surprised God; and he asked what was the cause of this his procedure; and why he, that before delighted in that conversation, did now fly from it, and avoid it. When he made no reply, as conscious to himself that he had transgressed the command of God, God said, "I had before determined about you both, how you might lead a happy life, without any affliction, and care, and vexation of soul; and that all things which might contribute to your enjoyment and pleasure should grow up by my providence, of their own accord, without your own labor and pains-taking; which state of labor and pains-taking would soon bring on old age, and death would not be at any remote distance: but now thou hast abused this my good-will, and hast disobeyed my commands; for thy silence is not the sign of thy virtue, but of thy evil conscience."

Flavius Josephus, Antiquity of the Jews, trans. William Whiston, Vol.1, Book 1, Ch.1, 93 BC (italics added)

8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
Old Testament, King James Version, Genesis 3:8-11

14 And they heard the voice of the Lord God, as they were walking in the garden, in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife went to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
15 And I, the Lord God, called unto Adam, and said unto him: Where goest thou?
16 And he said: I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I beheld that I was naked, and I hid myself.
17 And I, the Lord God, said unto Adam: Who told thee thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, if so thou shouldst surely die?
Pearl of Great Price, Moses 4:14-17

---

"[...] However, Adam excused his sin, and entreated God not to be angry at him, and laid the blame of what was done upon his wife; and said that he was deceived by her, and thence became an offender; while she again accused the serpent. But God allotted him punishment, because he weakly submitted to the counsel of his wife; and said the ground should not henceforth yield its fruits of its own accord, but that when it should be harassed by their labor, it should bring forth some of its fruits, and refuse to bring forth others. He also made Eve liable to the inconveniency of breeding, and the sharp pains of bringing forth children; and this because she persuaded Adam with the same arguments wherewith the serpent had persuaded her, and had thereby brought him into a calamitous condition."

Flavius Josephus, Antiquity of the Jews, trans. William Whiston, Vol.1, Book 1, Ch.1, 93 BC (italics added)

12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

Old Testament, King James Version, Genesis 3:12-20

18 And the man said: The woman thou gavest me, and commandest that she should remain with me, she gave me of the fruit of the tree and I did eat.
19 And I, the Lord God, said unto the woman: What is this thing which thou hast done? And the woman said: The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
22 Unto the woman, I, the Lord God, said: I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
23 And unto Adam, I, the Lord God, said: Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the fruit of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying—Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed shall be the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
24 Thorns also, and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
25 By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou shalt return unto the ground—for thou shalt surely die—for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou wast, and unto dust shalt thou return.
26 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living; for thus have I, the Lord God, called the first of all women, which are many.

Pearl of Great Price, Moses 4:18-19, 22-26

---

"[...] He also deprived the serpent of speech, out of indignation at his malicious disposition towards Adam. Besides this, he inserted poison under his tongue, and made him an enemy to men; and suggested to them, that they should direct their strokes against his head, that being the place wherein lay his mischievous designs towards men, and it being easiest to take vengeance on him, that way. And when he had deprived him of the use of his feet, he made him to go rolling all along, and dragging himself upon the ground. [...]"

Flavius Josephus, Antiquity of the Jews, trans. William Whiston, Vol.1, Book 1, Ch.1, 93 BC (italics added)

14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Old Testament, King James Version, Genesis 3:14-15

20 And I, the Lord God, said unto the serpent: Because thou hast done this thou shalt be cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life;
21 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed; and he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Pearl of Great Price, Moses 4:20-21

---

"[...] And when God had appointed these penalties for them, he removed Adam and Eve out of the garden into another place."

Flavius Josephus, Antiquity of the Jews, trans. William Whiston, Vol.1, Book 1, Ch.1, 93 BC

21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
22 ¶ And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Old Testament, King James Version, Genesis 3:21-24

27 Unto Adam, and also unto his wife, did I, the Lord God, make coats of skins, and clothed them.
28 And I, the Lord God, said unto mine Only Begotten: Behold, the man is become as one of us to know good and evil; and now lest he put forth his hand and partake also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever,
29 Therefore I, the Lord God, will send him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken;
30 For as I, the Lord God, liveth, even so my words cannot return void, for as they go forth out of my mouth they must be fulfilled.
31 So I drove out the man, and I placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.
32 (And these are the words which I spake unto my servant Moses, and they are true even as I will; and I have spoken them unto you. See thou show them unto no man, until I command you, except to them that believe. Amen.)

Pearl of Great Price, Moses 4:27-32

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.5, Section III

https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

“There is,” says Georg, “no part of the body that has not been perfected, decorated, dis- figured, painted, bleached, tattooed, reformed, stretched or squeezed, out of vanity or desire for ornament.”

Quoted in Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section III, 1935

"Clothing was apparently, in its origins, a form of ornament, a sexual deterrent or charm rather than an article of use against cold or shame. The Cimbri were in the habit of tobogganing naked over the snow. When Darwin, pitying the nakedness of the Fuegians, gave one of them a red cloth as a protection against the cold, the native tore it into strips, which he and his companions then used as ornaments; as Cook had said of them, tunelessly, they were “content to be naked, but ambitious to be fine.” In like manner the ladies of the Orinoco cut into shreds the materials given them by the Jesuit Fathers for clothing; they wore the ribbons so made around their necks, but insisted that “they would be ashamed to wear clothing.” An old author describes the Brazilian natives as usually naked, and adds: “Now alreadie some doe weare apparell, but esteem it so little that they weare it rather for fashion than for honesties sake, and because they are commanded to weare it; ... as is well seene by some that some times come abroad with certaine garments no further than the navell, without any other thing, or others onely a cap on their heads, and leave the other garments at home.” When clothing became something more than an adornment it served partly to indicate the married status of a loyal wife, partly to accentuate the form and beauty of woman. For the most part primitive women asked of clothing precisely what later women have asked— not that it should quite cover their nakedness, but that it should enhance or suggest their charms. Everything changes, except woman and man."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section III, 1935

"From the dance, we may believe, came instrumental music and the drama. The making of such music appears to arise out of a desire to mark and accentuate with sound the rhythm of the dance, and to intensify with shrill or rhythmic notes the excitement necessary to patriotism or procreation. The instruments were limited in range and accomplishment, but almost endless in variety: native ingenuity exhausted itself in fashioning horns, trumpets, gongs, tamtams, clappers, rattles, castanets, flutes and drums from horns, skins, shells, ivory, brass, copper, bamboo and wood; and it ornamented them with elaborate carving and coloring. The taut string of the bow became the origin of a hundred instruments from the primitive lyre to the Stradivarius violin and the modern pianoforte. Professional singers, like professional dancers, arose among the tribes; and vague scales, predominantly minor in tone, were developed.

With music, song and dance combined, the “savage” created for us the drama and the opera. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section III, 1935 (italics added)

"In these ways precivilized men created the forms and bases of civilization. Looking backward upon this brief survey of primitive culture, we find every element of civilization except writing and the state. All the modes of economic life are invented for us here: hunting and fishing, herd- ing and tillage, transport and building, industry and commerce and finance. All the simpler structures of political life are organized: the clan, the family, the village community, and the tribe; freedom and order— those hostile foci around which civilization revolves— find their first adjustment and reconciliation; law and justice begin. The fundamentals of morals are established: the training of children, the regulation of the sexes, the inculcation of honor and decency, of manners and loyalty. The bases of religion are laid, and its hopes and terrors are applied to the encouragement of morals and the strengthening of the group. Speech is developed into complex languages, medicine and surgery appear, and modest beginnings are made in science, literature and art. All in all it is a picture of astonishing creation, of form rising out of chaos, of one road after another being opened from the animal to the sage. Without these “savages,” and their hundred thou- sand years of experiment and groping, civilization could not have been. We owe almost everything to them— as a fortunate, and possibly degenerate, youth inherits the means to culture, security and ease through the long toil of an unlettered ancestry."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section III, 1935

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.5, Section II

https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

"In the opinion of Herbert Spencer, that supreme expert in the collection of evidence post judicium, science, like letters, began with the priests, originated in astronomic observations, governing religious festivals, and was preserved in the temples and transmitted across the generations as part of the clerical heritage. We cannot say, for here again beginnings elude us, and we may only surmise. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section II, 1935 (italics & formatting added)

"Counting was probably one of the earliest forms of speech, and in many tribes it still presents a relieving simplicity. The Tasmanians counted up to two: “Parmery, calabawa, cardia”— i.e., “one, two, plenty”; the Guaranis of Brazil adventured further and said: “One, two, three, four, in- numerable.” The New Hollanders had no words for three or jour; three they called “two-one”; jour was “two-two.” Damara natives would not exchange two sheep for four sticks, but willingly exchanged, twice in succession, one sheep for two sticks. [...]" (just interesting)

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section II, 1935

"The measurement of time by the movements of the heavenly bodies was probably the beginning of astronomy; the very word measure, like the word month (and perhaps the word man— the measurer), goes back apparently to a root denoting the moon.” Men measured time by moons long before they counted it by years; the sun, like the father, was a com- paratively late discovery; even today Easter is reckoned according to the phases of the moon. [...]" (also interesting)

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section II, 1935 (italics & formatting added)

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.5, Section I

https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

"In the beginning was the word, for with it man became man. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section I, 1935

"[...] Without words as class names one might think of this man, or that man, or that man; one could not think of Man, for the eye sees not Man but only men, not classes but particular things. The beginning of humanity came when some freak or crank, half animal and half man, squatted in a cave or in a tree, cracking his brain to invent the first common noun, the first sound-sign that would signify a group of like objects: house that would mean all houses, man that would mean all men, light that would mean every light that ever shone on land or sea. From that moment the mental development of the race opened upon a new and endless road. For words are to thought what tools are to work; the product depends largely on the growth of the tools."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section I, 1935

"Since all origins are guesses, and de fontibus non disputandum, the imagination has free play in picturing the beginnings of speech. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section I, 1935

"[...] Nearly all primitive tongues, however, limit themselves to the sensual and particular, and are uniformly poor in general or abstract terms. So the Australian natives had a name for a dog’s tail, and an- other name for a cow’s tail; but they had no name for tail in general. The Tasmanians had separate names for specific trees, but no general name for tree; the Choctaw Indians had names for the black oak, the white oak and the red oak, but no name for oak, much less for tree. Doubtless many generations passed before the proper noun ended in the common noun. In many tribes there are no separate words for the color as distinct from the colored object; no words for such abstractions as tone, sex, species, space, spirit, instinct, reason, quantity, hope, fear, matter, consciousness, etc. Such abstract terms seem to grow in a reciprocal relation of cause and effect with the development of thought; they become the tools of subtlety and the symbols of civilization. [...] They made not only for clearer thinking, but for better social organization; they cemented the generations mentally, by providing a better medium for education and the transmission of knowledge and the arts; they created a new organ of communication, by which one doctrine or belief could mold a people into homogeneous unity. They opened new roads for the transport and traffic of ideas, and immensely accelerated the tempo, and enlarged the range and content, of life. Has any other invention ever equaled, in power and glory, the common noun?"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section I, 1935 (italics added)

"[...] Civilization is an accumulation, a treasure-house of arts and wisdom, manners and morals, from which the individual, in his development, draws nourishment for his mental life; without that periodical reacquisition of the racial heritage by each generation, civilization would die a sudden death. It owes its life to education."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section I, 1935

"The environment of the natural man was comparatively permanent; it called not for mental agility but for courage and character. The primitive father put his trust in character, as modern education has put its trust in intellect; he was concerned to make not scholars but men. Hence the initiation rites which, among nature peoples, ordinarily marked the arrival of the youth at maturity and membership in the tribe, were designed to test courage rather than knowledge; their function was to prepare the young for the hardships of war and the responsibilities of marriage. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section I, 1935

"Little or no use was made of writing in primitive education. Nothing surprises the natural man so much as the ability of Europeans to communicate with one another, over great distances, by making black scratches upon a piece of paper. Many tribes have learned to write by imitating their civilized exploiters; but some, as in northern Africa, have remained letterless despite five thousand years of intermittent contact with literate nations. Simple tribes living for the most part in comparative isolation, and knowing the happiness of having no history, felt little need for writing. Their memories were all the stronger for having no written aids; they learned and retained, and passed on to their children by recitation, whatever seemed necessary in the way of historical record and cultural trans- mission. It was probably by committing such oral traditions and folk-lore to writing that literature began.

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section I, 1935 (italics added)

"In general, writing is a sign of civilization, the least uncertain of the pre- carious distinctions between civilized and primitive men. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section I, 1935

"Literature is at first words rather than letters, despite its name; it arises as clerical chants or magic charms, recited usually by the priests, and trans- mitted orally from memory to memory. [...] Gradually, out of these sacerdotal origins, the poet, the orator and the historian were differentiated and secularized: the orator as the official lauder of the king or solicitor of the deity; the historian as the recorder of the royal deeds; the poet as the singer of originally sacred chants, the formulator and preserver of heroic legends, and the musician who put his tales to music for the instruction of populace and kings. So the Fijians, the Tahitians and the New Caledonians had official orators and narrators to make addresses on occasions of ceremony, and to incite the warriors of the tribe by recounting the deeds of their forefathers and exalting the unequaled glories of the nation’s past: how little do some recent historians differ from these! [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.5, Section I, 1935

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 4

https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

"Religion supports morality by two means chiefly: myth and tabu.

Myth creates the supernatural creed through which celestial sanctions may be given to forms of conduct socially (or sacerdotally) desirable; heavenly hopes and terrors inspire the individual to put up with restraints placed upon him by his masters and his group. Man is not naturally obedient, gentle, or chaste; and next to that ancient compulsion which finally generates conscience, nothing so quietly and continuously conduces to these uncongenial virtues as the fear of the gods. The institutions of property and marriage rest in some measure upon religious sanctions, and tend to lose their vigor in ages of unbelief. Government itself, which is the most unnatural and necessary of social mechanisms, has usually required the support of piety and the priest, as clever heretics like Napoleon and Mussolini soon discovered; and hence “a tendency to theocracy is incidental to all constitutions.” The power of the primitive chief is increased by the aid of magic and sorcery; and even our own government derives some sanctity from its annual recognition of the Pilgrims’ God.

The Polynesians gave the word tabu to prohibitions sanctioned by religion. In the more highly developed of primitive societies such tabus took the place of what under civilization became laws. Their form was usually negative: certain acts and objects were declared “sacred” or “unclean”; and the two words meant in effect one warning: untouchable. So the Ark of the Covenant was tabu, and Uzzah was struck dead, we are told, for touching it to save it from falling. Diodorus would have us believe that the ancient Egyptians ate one another in famine, rather than violate the tabu against eating the animal totem of the tribe. In most primitive societies countless things were tabu; certain words and names were never to be pronounced, and certain days and seasons were tabu in the sense that work was forbidden at such times. All the knowledge, and some of the ignorance, of primitive men about food were expressed in dietetic tabus; and hygiene was inculcated by religion rather than by science or secular medicine."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 4, 1935 (italics & formatting added)

"Religion is not the basis of morals, but an aid to them; conceivably they could exist without it, and not infrequently they have progressed against its indifference or its obstinate resistance. In the earliest societies, and in some later ones, morals appear at times to be quite independent of religion; religion then concerns itself not with the ethics of conduct but with magic, ritual and sacrifice, and the good man is defined in terms of ceremonies dutifully performed and faithfully financed. As a rule religion sanctions not any absolute good (since there is none), but those norms of conduct which have established themselves by force of economic and social circumstance; like law it looks to the past for its judgments, and is apt to be left behind as conditions change and morals alter with them. So the Greeks learned to abhor incest while their mythologies still honored incestuous gods; the Christians practised monogamy while their Bible legalized polygamy; slavery was abolished while dominies sanctified it with unimpeachable Biblical authority; and in our own day the Church fights heroically for a moral code that the Industrial Revolution has obviously doomed. In the end terrestrial forces prevail; morals slowly adjust themselves to economic invention, and religion reluctantly adjusts itself to moral change. The moral function of religion is to conserve established values, rather than to create new ones."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 4, 1935 (italics added)

"Hence a certain tension between religion and society marks the higher stages of every civilization. Religion begins by offering magical aid to harassed and bewildered men; it culminates by giving to a people that unity of morals and belief which seems so favorable to statesmanship and art; it ends by fighting suicidally in the lost cause of the past. For as knowledge grows or alters continually, it clashes with mythology and theology, which change with geological leisureliness. Priestly control of arts and letters is then felt as a galling shackle or hateful barrier, and intellectual history takes on the character of a “conflict between science and religion.” Institutions which were at first in the hands of the clergy, like law and punishment, education and morals, marriage and divorce, tend to escape from ecclesiastical control, and become secular, perhaps profane. The intellectual classes abandon the ancient theology and— after some hesitation— the moral code allied with it; literature and philosophy become anti- clerical. The movement of liberation rises to an exuberant worship of reason, and falls to a paralyzing disillusionment with every dogma and every idea. Conduct, deprived of its religious supports, deteriorates into epicurean chaos; and life itself, shorn of consoling faith, becomes a burden alike to conscious poverty and to weary wealth. Meanwhile among the oppressed another myth arises, gives new form to human hope, new courage to human effort, and after centuries of chaos builds another civilization."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 4, 1935 (italics added)

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3

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"Having conceived a world of spirits, whose nature and intent were unknown to him, primitive man sought to propitiate them and to enlist them in his aid. Hence to animism, which is the essence of primitive religion, was added magic, which is the soul of primitive ritual. [...] The methods by which the spirits, and later the gods, were suborned to human purposes were for the most part 'sympthetic magic' -- a desired action was suggested to the deities by a partial and imitative performance of the action by men. To make rain fall some primitive magicians poured water out upon the grounded, preferably from a tree. The Kaffirs, threatened by drought, asked a missionary to go into the fields with an opened umbrella. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3, 1935

"These methods of suggestion by example were applied especially to the fertilization of the soil. Zulu medicine-men fried the genitals of a man who had died in full vigor, ground the mixture into a powder, and strewed it over the fields. Some people chose a King and Queen of the May, or a Whitsum bridegroom and bride, and married them publicly, so that the soil might take heed and flower forth. In certain localities the rite included the public consummation of the marriage, so that Nature, though she might be nothing but a dull clod, would have no excuse for misunderstanding her duty. IN Java the peasants and their wives, to ensure the fertility of the rice-fields, mated in the midst of them. For primitive men did not conceive the growth of the soil in terms of nitrogen; they thought of it -- apparently without knowing of sex in plants -- in the same terms as those whereby they interpreted the fruitfulness of woman [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3, 1935

"Here and there, as among the Pawnees and the Indians of Guayaquil, vegetation rites took on a less attractive form. A man -- or, in later and milder days, an animal -- was sacrificed to the earth at sowing time, so that it might be fertilized by his blood. When the harvest came it was interpreted as the resurrection of the dead man; the victim was given, before and after his death, the honors of a god; and from this origin arose, in a thousand forms, the almost universal myth of a god dying for his people, and then returning triumphantly to life. Poetry embroidered magic, and transformed it into theology. Solar myths mingled harmoniously with vegetation rites, and the legend of the god dying and reborn came to apply not only to the winter death and spring revival of the earth but to the autumnal and vernal equinoxes, and the waning and waxing of the day. For the coming of night was merely a part of this tragic drama; daily the sun-god was born and died; every sunset was a crucifixion, and every sunrise was a resurrection."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3, 1935

"Human sacrifice, of which we have here but one of many varieties, seems to have been honored at some time or another by almost every people. [...] Probably it was bound up with cannibalism; men thought that the gods had tastes like their own. As religious beliefs change more slowly than other creeds, and rites change more slowly than beliefs, this divine cannibalism survived after human cannibalism disappeared. Slowly, however, evolving morals changed even religious rites; the gods imitated the increasing gentleness of their worshipers, and resigned themselves to accepting animal instead of human meat; a hind took the place of Iphigenia, and a ram was substituted for Abraham’s son."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3, 1935

"Since early man believed that he acquired the powers of whatever organism he consumed, he came naturally to the conception of eating the god. In many cases he ate the flesh and drank the blood of the human god whom he had deified and fattened for the sacrifice. When, through increased continuity in the food-supply, he became more humane, he substituted images for the victim, and was content to eat these.[...]" (thinking of the Sacrament)

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3, 1935

"Magic begins in superstition, and ends in science. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3, 1935

"[...] Frazer has shown, with the exaggeration natural to a brilliant innovator, that the glories of science have their roots in the absurdities of magic. For since magic often failed, it became of advantage to the magician to discover natural operations by which he might help supernatural forces to produce the desired event. Slowly the natural means came to predominate, even though the magician, to preserve his standing with the people, concealed these natural means as well as he could, and gave the credit to supernatural magic- much as our own people often credit natural cures to magical prescriptions and pills. In this way magic gave birth to the physician, the chemist, the metallurgist, and the astronomer.

More immediately, however, magic made the priest. Gradually, as religious rites became more numerous and complex, they outgrew the knowledge and competence of the ordinary man, and generated a special class which gave most of its time to the functions and ceremonies of religion. The priest as magician had access, through trance, inspiration or esoteric prayer, to the will of the spirits or gods, and could change that will for human purposes. Since such knowledge and skill seemed to primitive men the most valuable of all, and supernatural forces were conceived to affect man’s fate at every turn, the power of the clergy became as great as that of the state; and from the latest societies to modern times the priest has vied and alternated with the warrior in dominating and disciplining men. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 3, 1935

"The priest did not create religion, he merely used it, as a statesman uses the impulses and customs of mankind; religion arises not out of sacerdotal invention or chicanery, but out of the persistent wonder, fear, insecurity, hopefulness and loneliness of men. [...] If he had not existed the people would have invented him."

Friday, November 13, 2020

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 2

https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

"Since all things have souls, or contain hidden gods, the objects of religious worship are numberless. They fall into six classes: celestial, terrestrial, sexual, animal, human, and divine. Of course we shall never know which of our universe of objects was worshiped first. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 2, 1935

"[...] There is hardly any superstition so old but it can be found flourishing somewhere today. Civilization is the precarious labor and luxury of a minority; the basic masses of mankind hardly change from millennium to millennium."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 2, 1935

"[...] Ishtar and Cybele, Demeter and Ceres, Aphrodite and Venus and Freya— these are comparatively late forms of the ancient goddesses of the earth, whose fertility constituted the bounty of the fields; their birth and marriage, their death and triumphant resurrection were conceived as the symbols or causes of the sprouting, the decay, and the vernal renewal of all vegetation. These deities reveal by their gender the primitive association of agriculture with woman. When agriculture became the dominant mode of human life, the vegetation goddesses reigned supreme. Most early gods were of the gentler sex; they were superseded by male deities presumably as a heavenly reflex of the victorious patriarchal family."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 2, 1935

"Just as the profound poetry of the primitive mind sees a secret divinity in the growth of a tree, so it sees a supernatural agency in the conception or birth of a child. The “savage” does not know anything about the ovum or the sperm; he sees only the external structures involved, and deifies them; they, too, have spirits in them, and must be worshiped, for are not these mysteriously creative powers the most marvelous of all? In them, even more than in the soil, the miracle of fertility and growth appears; there- fore they must be the most direct embodiments of the divine potency. Nearly all ancient peoples worshiped sex in some form and ritual, and not the lowest people but the highest expressed their worship most completely; we shall find such worship in Egypt and India, Babylonia and Assyria, Greece and Rome. The sexual character and functions of primitive deities were held in high regard, not through any obscenity of mind, but through a passion for fertility in women and in the earth. Certain animals, like the bull and the snake, were worshiped as apparently possessing or symbolizing in a high degree the divine power of reproduction. The snake in the story of Eden is doubtless a phallic symbol, representing sex as the origin of evil, suggesting sexual awakening as the beginning of the knowledge of good and evil, and perhaps insinuating a certain proverbial connection between mental innocence and bliss."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 2, 1935 (italics added)

"There is hardly an animal in nature, from the Egyptian scarab to the Hindu elephant, that has not somewhere been worshiped as a god. The Ojibwa Indians gave the name of totem to their special sacred animal, to the clan that worshiped it, and to any member of the clan; [...]

The totem as a religious object helped to unify the tribe, whose members thought themselves bound up with it or descended from it; the Iroquois, in semi-Darwinian fashion, believed that they were sprung from the primeval mating of women with bears, wolves and deer.

The totem— as object or as symbol— became a useful sign of relationship and distinction for primitive peoples, and lapsed, in the course of secularization, into a mascot or emblem, like the lion or eagle of nations, the elk or moose of our fraternal orders, and those dumb animals that are used to represent the elephantine immobility and mulish obstreperousness of our political parties. The dove, the fish and the lamb, in the symbolism of nascent Christianity, were relics of totemic adoration; even the lowly pig was once a totem of prehistoric Jews .” In most cases the totem animal was tabu— i.e., forbidden, not to be touched; under certain circumstances it might be eaten, but only as a religious act, amounting to the ritual eating of the god. The Gallas of Abyssinia ate in solemn ceremony the fish that they worshiped, and said, “We feel the spirit moving within us as we eat.” The good missionaries who preached the Gospel to the Gallas were shocked to find among these simple folk a ritual so strangely similar to the central ceremony of the Mass."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 2, 1935 (italics and formatting added)

"Gradually the cult of the ghost became the worship of ancestors. All the dead were feared, and had to be propitiated, lest they should curse and blight the lives of the living. This ancestor-worship was so well adapted to promote social authority and continuity, conservatism and order, that it soon spread to every region of the earth. It flourished in Egypt, Greece and Rome, and survives vigorously in China and Japan today; many peoples worship ancestors but no god. The institution held the family powerfully together despite the hostility of successive generations, and provided an invisible structure for many early societies. And just as compulsion grew into conscience, so fear graduated into love; the ritual of ancestor-worship, probably generated by terror, later aroused the sentiment of awe, and finally developed piety and devotion. It is the tendency of gods to begin as ogres and to end as loving fathers; the idol passes into an ideal as the growing security, peacefulness and moral sense of the worshipers pacify and transform the features of their once ferocious deities. The slow progress of civilization is reflected in the tardy amiability of the gods."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 2, 1935 (italics added)

"[...] The notion of God as Father was probably derived from ancestor- worship; it meant originally that men had been physically begotten by the gods.

In primitive theology there is no sharp or generic distinction between gods and men; to the early Greeks, for example, their gods were ancestors, and their ancestors were gods. A further development came when, out of the medley of ancestors, certain men and women who had been especially distinguished were singled out for clearer deification; so the greater kings became gods, sometimes even before their death."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 2, 1935 (italics and formatting added)

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 1

https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

"Fear, as Lucretius said, was the first mother of the gods. Fear, above all, of death. Primitive life was beset with a thousand dangers, and seldom ended with natural decay; long before old age could come, violence or some strange disease carried off the great majority of men. Hence early man did not believe that death was ever natural” he attributed it to the operation of supernatural agencies. In the mythology of the natives of New Britain death came to men by an error of the gods. The good god Kambinana told his foolish brother Korvouva, “Go down to men and tell them to cast their skins; so shall they avoid death. But tell the serpents that they must henceforth die.” Korvouva mixed the messages; he delivered the secret of immortality to the snakes, and the doom of death to men. Many tribes thought that death was due to the shrinkage of the skin, and that man would be immortal if only he could moult."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 1, 1935

"Fear of death, wonder at the causes of chance events or unintelligible happenings, hope for divine aid and gratitude for good fortune, cooperated to generate religious belief. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 1, 1935

"[...] Primitive man marveled at the phantoms that he saw in sleep, and was struck with terror when he beheld, in his dreams, the figures of those whom he knew to be dead. He buried his dead in the earth to prevent their return; he buried victuals and goods with the corpse lest it should come back to curse him; sometimes he left to the dead the house in which death had come, while he himself moved on to another shelter; in some places he carried the body out of the house not through a door but through a hole in the wall, and bore it rapidly three times around the dwelling, so that the spirit might forget the entrance and never haunt the home.

Such experiences convinced early man that every living thing had a soul, or secret life, within it, which could be separated from the body in illness, sleep or death. [...] Not man alone but all things had souls; the external world was not insensitive or dead, it was intensely alive; if this were not so, thought primitive philosophy, nature would be full of inexplicable occurrences, like the motion of the sun, or the death- dealing lightning, or the whispering of the trees."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 1, 1935

"[...] To the primitive mind— and to the poet in all ages— mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, stars, sun, moon and sky are sacramentally holy things, because they are the outward and visible signs of inward and invisible souls. To the early Greeks the sky was the god Ouranos, the moon was Selene, the earth was Gaea, the sea was Poseidon, and everywhere in the woods was Pan. To the ancient Germans the forest primeval was peopled with genii, elves, trolls, giants, dwarfs and fairies; these sylvan creatures survive in the music of Wagner and the poetic dramas of Ibsen. The simpler peasants of Ireland still believe in fairies, and no poet or playwright can belong to the Irish literary revival unless he employs them. There is wisdom as well as beauty in this animism; it is good and nourishing to treat all things as alive. [...]"

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, Part 1, 1935

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.4, Section IV, Intro

https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

"If we define religion as the worship of supernatural forces, we must observe at the outset that some peoples have apparently no religion at all. Certain Pygmy tribes of Africa had no observable cult or rites; they had no totem, no fetishes, and no gods; they buried their dead without ceremony, and seem to have paid no further attention to them; they lacked even superstitions, if we may believe otherwise incredible travelers." The dwarfs of the Cameroon recognized only malevolent deities, and did nothing to placate them, on the ground that it was useless to try. The Veddahs of Ceylon went no further than to admit the possibility of gods and immortal souls; but they offered no prayers or sacrifices. Asked about God they answered, as puzzled as the latest philosopher: “Is he on a rock? On a white-ant hill? On a tree? I never saw a god!” The North American Indians conceived a god, but did not worship him; like Epicurus they thought him too remote to be concerned in their affairs.' An Abipone Indian rebuffed a metaphysical inquirer in a manner quite Confucian: “Our grandfathers and our great-grandfathers were wont to contemplate the earth alone, solicitous only to see whether the plain afford grass and water for their horses. They never troubled themselves about what went on in the heavens, and who was the creator and governor of the stars.” The Eskimos, when asked who had made the heavens and the earth, always replied, “We do not know.” A Zulu was asked: “When you see the sun rising and setting, and the trees growing, do you know who made them and governs them?” He answered, simply: “No, we see them, but cannot tell how they came; we suppose that they came by themselves.”

Such cases are exceptional, and the old belief that religion is universal is substantially correct.

To the philosopher this is one of the outstanding facts of history and psychology; he is not content to know that all religions contain much nonsense, but rather he is fascinated by the problem of the antiquity and persistence of belief."

Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Ch.4, Section IV, 1935 (italics and formatting added)

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

QUOTES: Story of Civilization, Will Durant, Vol.1, 1935, Ch.4, Section III

https://archive.org/stream/TheStoryOfCivilizationcomplete/Durant_Will_-_The_story_of_civilization_1#page/n101/mode/2up/search/one+life

160

"Part of the function of parentage is the transmission of a moral code. For the child is more animal than human; it has humanity thrust upon it day by day as it receives the moral and mental heritage of the race. [...]"