THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 66 CURIOUS MYTHS OF THE MIDDLE AGES,' THE SILVER STORE," ETC. PART I. HEATHENISM AND MOSAISM. DIVINITY ECHOOL LIBRARY. HARVARD UNIVERSITY NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 90, 92 & 94 GRAND STREET. 1870. THIS PREFACE. THIS book is written from a philosophic, and not from a religious, point of view. I have therefore subjected Mosaism, as I have Heathenism, and as I shall, in the next volume, subject Christianity, to criticism. Every man has his convictions of what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false, and can never therefore be wholly unprejudiced in his estimates. A man without convictions is a man without judgment. I can frankly say, that I have tried to appreciate the various religions that come under review with impartiality. The subject of these volumes has been studied for, and thought over, for many years. I had intended to analyze separately the religions, ancient and modern, of which we know any thing; but the publication of the late Archdeacon Hardwick's volumes, "Christ and other Masters," altered my intention. Though I cannot sympathize with the views of that writer, his knowledge and research render his book the best of the kind, and I have found it trustworthy and useful. This work being an attempt on purely positive grounds to determine the religious instincts of humanity The reader is requested to bear in mind: |