A Lecture.

—an influence ancl a predominance which , being human , they were loth to lose . They thought it better not to throAv pearls before swine , nor to give strong meat to babes ; and having naturally , by superiority of intellect , obtained leading positions among their contemporaries , they encouraged among their inferiors all such religious notions as had . already obtained a hold on their

minds , retaining for themselves the power of communicating to their pupils , or to such among them as showed an aptitude for culture beyond their fellows , such moral ancl religious lessons as should raise them aboA'e the grovelling multitude , sunk in ignorance ancl in the mixture of superstition and . debauchery , Avhich was the natural result of the primseval reverence of untutored childish minds for those powers which caused reproduction throughout nature .

Thus in the ancient world there arose a class—a priesthood , a hierarch y of men superior in intellect to their felloAvs—AA'illing to initiate into their body such persons as could prove themselves fit for such promotion , but yet who , conscious of their OAVII superiorit y and of the utility of retaining it , assumed the lead , at first with a good purpose , no doubt , of those AA'hose primitive religion AA'as a belief in a chaos of discordant and antagonistic powers , Avhose attributes werein many casesearthlysensualand devilish .

, , , , Believing , as all the men of antiquity did , that virtue and courage Avere synonymous , and that those eabable of the greatest bodily endurance Avere also the best and safest recipients of a Avisdom AA'hich , in the words of Solomon , is strength , this hierarchy of intellect , having constituted itself also a hierarchy of religion ( if , indeed , the polluted polytheism of those days could be called a religion ) , established rites and ceremoniesby means of which those whose

, fortitude enabled them to persevere through their initiation Avere instructed in what to us seems the self-evident truth , that " The Lord our God is one God , " ancl its dependent corollaries that there is a life beyond the grave , where there will be an equitable adjustment of rewards ancl punishments , and that , consequently , the gross beliefs of the multitude were utterly incredible and Avithout foundation .

Thus in the archaic clays of Egypt , India , and Chalclea Ave find society consisting of tAvo divisions—the few holding all the poAver , all the knowledge , and the only true idea of religion which then existed ; Avhile the many remained , as Avas most natural , in a state of , not only political , but intellectual thraldom to those Avho looked with loathing ancl contempt upon their gross and sensual system of pol ytheism . The feAA ' , neA'ertheless , recruited their ranks , and maintained a succession of their orderby the initiation of such as they

, found fittest for their purpose , ancl to prevent the acceptance of candidates unfitted by physical or intellectual weakness to become leaders among men , as well as for the purpose of rendering it impossible for others than those they deemed worthy to obtain , surreptitiously , even an inkling of their secrets , they instituted , long probations , severe mental ancl physical trials , and oaths and obligations calculated to deter the bravest from a breach of trustknoAving

, as they did that some germs of true religion ancl morality were to be found oven in the wildest ancl most fanciful , as well as in the grossest ancl most debased , forms of polytheistic Avorship , ancl that through their religious fears lay the safest road to an ascendancy over their felloAvs . They organised no open crusade against the creed of the multitude , but , Avisely in their generation , assumed the leadership , ancl constituted themselves the hierophants of

reli gions Avhich they kneAV to be ridiculous , ancl which , by means of initiation , they eradicated from the minds of those best fitted for the reception of truth . They let it be generally known that by various successive steps it vras open to the multitude by probations ancl trials , to attain to degrees of knoAvledge of the nature of Avhich that multitude had no idea , while yet the power ancl greatness of its possessors rendered it an object of ambition . ( To be continued ) .