ePub Voyages in World History; Volume 2 by Valerie Hansen; Ken Curtis in History

Description

Excerpt from Zoroastrianism in the Light of Theosophy: Being a Collection of Selected Articles From the Theosophical LiteratureThe history of the world's religions is contained to a very insignificant extent; we may believe; in the various scriptures that have come down to our days from antiquity. Such writings are few in number; and often comprise but fragments of the primitive cults. A much larger proportion is to be found in mural pictures and inscriptions; architectural carvings and symbolical embellishments and crumbling ruins. Of some of the old religions we were quite ignorant at the beginning of this century; but are now learning much from the results of excavations; the discovery of tile libraries; the decipherment of hieroglyphs. Sometimes a new 'find' shocks our fixed ideas to their bases; or compels us to recast our chronologies and alter our beliefs. At this moment; for example; M.Le Plongeon; the French archaeologist; proclaims that he has found by deciphering the inscriptions in Yucatan that all the ancient schools of the Mysteries; including those of Eleusis; Samothrace; even Egypt; were derived from the mother-school and fountain head in Mayax and the Quichi country: he even discovers in the simple Greek alphabet a distinct narrative of the destruction of Atlantis. Early in this century; books were written to prove the derivation of the Sanskrit from the Hebrew; Hue and Gabet saw in the ritualistic observances of Tibetan Buddhism a travesty of those of the Roman Catholic Church; Western orientalists have steadfastly laboured to minimize the dates of Indian civilisation and literature. Sometimes they have done this in the interest of Biblical chronology; sometimes; perhaps; to save the West from the mortification of having its own brief historical cycle made to seem still briefer and less impressive by comparison with those of the ancient peoples.