The Two Babylons
In giving the Third Edition of this work to the public, I have little
else to do than to express my acknowledgments to those to whom I am
under obligations, for enabling me thus far to bring it to a successful
issue.
To Mr. Murray, of Albemarle Street, London; Mr. Vaux, of the British
Museum; and Messrs. Black and Messrs. Chambers, Edinburgh, I am
specially indebted for permission to copy woodcuts belonging to them.
Individual woodcuts, from other sources, are acknowledged in the body of
the work. To Mr. John Adam, the artist, who has executed the whole of
the woodcuts, with a few exceptions, I have to express my obligations
for the spirit and artistic skill displayed in their execution; and I do
so with the more pleasure, that Mr. Adam is a native of Arbroath, and
the son of a worthy elder of my own.
I have also acknowledgments of another kind to make. Considering the
character of this work--a work that, from its very nature, required
wide, and, at the same time, minute research, and the consultation of
works of a very recondite character; and, taking also into view not only
the very limited extent of my own library, but the distance of my abode
from any of the great libraries of the land, where rare and expensive
works may be consulted, the due preparation of such a work was attended
with many difficulties. The kindness of friends, however, has tended
wonderfully to remove these difficulties. From all quarters I have met
with the most disinterested aid, of which I retain a grateful and
pleasing remembrance. To enumerate the different sources whence help has
come to me, in the prosecution of my task, would be impossible. There
are three individuals, however, who stand out from the rest whom I
cannot pass over without notice. Each of them has co-operated (and all
spontaneously), though in different ways, in enabling me thus far to
accomplish my task, and their aid has been of the most essential
importance.
To Mrs. Barkworth, of Tranby Hall, Yorkshire (whose highly cultivated
mind, enlightened zeal for Protestant truth, and unwearied beneficence
need no testimony of mine), I am signally indebted, and it gives me
pleasure to acknowledge it.
I have also to acknowledge my deep and peculiar obligations to one
who chooses to be unknown, * who, entirely on public
grounds, has taken a very lively interest in this work. He has spared
neither expense nor pains, that, every incidental error being removed,
the argument might be presented to the public in the most perfect
possible form. For this purpose he has devoted a large portion of his
time, during the last three years, to the examination of every quotation
contained in the last edition, going in every case where it was at all
possible, to the fountain-head of authority. His co-operation with me in
the revisal of the work has been of the greatest advantage. His acute
and logical mind, quick in detecting a flaw, his determination to be
satisfied with nothing that had not sufficient evidence to rest upon,
and yet his willing surrender to the force of truth whenever that
evidence was presented, have made him a most valuable coadjutor. "As
iron sharpeneth iron," says Solomon, "so doth a man
sharpen the countenance of his friend." I have sensibly found
it so. His correspondence, by this stimulus, has led to the accumulation
of an immense mass of new evidence, here presented to the reader, which,
but for his suggestions, and objections too, might never have been
discovered. In the prosecution of his investigation he has examined no
fewer than 240 * out of the 270 works contained in the
accompanying list of "Editions," many of them of
large extent, all of which are in his own possession, and not in a few
of which he has procured for the purpose of verification. His object and
mine has been, that the argument might be fairly stated, and that error
might, as far as possible, be avoided. How far this object has been
attained, the references and list of "Editions" will
enable each reader
competent to the task, to judge for himself. For myself, however, I
cannot but express my high sense of the incalculable value of the
service which the extraordinary labours of my kind and disinterested
friend have rendered to the cause of universal Protestantism.
But while making mention of my obligations to the living, I may not
forget what I owe to the dead. To him whose name stands on the front of
this work, I am, in some respects, pre-eminently indebted, and I cannot
send forth this edition without a tribute of affection to his memory. It
is not for me to speak of his wit, and the brilliancy of his
conversational powers, that captivated all who knew him; of the generous
unselfishness of his nature, that made him a favourite with every one
that came in contact with him; or of the deep interest that he took in
the efforts at present being made for improving the dwellings of the
working-classes, and especially of those of his own estate, as well as
in their moral and religious improvement. But I should be liable to the
charge of ingratitude if I contented myself, in the circumstances, with
the mere formal dedication, which, though appropriate enough while he
was alive, is now no more so when he is gone.
The time and the circumstances in which his active friendship was
extended to me, made it especially welcome. His keen eye saw at a
glance, as soon as the subject of this work came under his attention,
the importance of it; and from that time forward, though the work was
then in its most rudimentary form, he took the deepest interest in it.
He did not wait till the leading organs of popular opinion, or the great
dispensers of fame, should award their applause; but, prompted by his
own kindly feeling, he spontaneously opened up a correspondence with me,
to encourage and aid me in the path of discovery on which I had entered.
His own studies qualified him to appreciate the subject and pronounce
upon it. For many years he had deeply studied the Druidical system,
which, with the haze and mystery around it, and with its many points of
contact with the patriarchal religion, had a strange and peculiar
fascination for him. For the elucidation of this subject, he had
acquired most valuable works; and what he possessed he was most ready to
communicate. In the prosecution of my inquires, I had met with what to
me seemed insuperable difficulties. He had only to know of this to set
himself to remove them; and the aid derived from him was at once
precious and opportune; for through his acquaintance with Druidism, and
the works received from him, difficulties disappeared, and a flood of
light irradiated the whole subject, If, therefore, the reader shall find
the early history of superstition, not only in our native land, but in
the world at large, set in a new and instructive light in these pages,
he must know that he is essentially indebted for that to Lord John
Scott. In one, who was an entire stranger, being thus prompted to render
efficient assistance to me at such a time, I could not but thankfully
recognise the hand of a gracious Providence; and when I reflect on the
generous, and humble, and disinterested
kindness with which the four years' correspondence between us was
conducted on his part,--a correspondence in which he always treated me
with as much confidence as if I had been his friend and brother,--I
cannot but feel warm and tender emotions, mingling with the thoughts
that spring up in my bosom. Friendship such as his was no ordinary
friendship. His memory, therefore, must be ever dear to me; the
remembrance of his kindness ever fragrant.
Unexpected was the stroke--now, alas! near three years ago--by which
our correspondence was brought to an end; but painful though that stroke
was, and solemnising, there was no gloom attending it. The "hope
full of immortality" cheered his dying bed. For years back he
had found the emptiness of the world, and had begun to seek the better
part. His religion was no sentimental religion; his fear of God was not
taught by the commandment of men. His faith was drawn directly from the
inspired fountain of Divine truth. From the time that the claims of God
to the homage of his heart had laid hold on him, the Word of God became
his grand study, and few men have I ever known who held with a more firm
and tenacious grasp the great truth that the Word of God, and that Word
alone, is the light and rule for the guidance of Christians; and that
every departure from that Word, alike on the part of Churches and
individuals, implies, as he himself expressed it, "going off
the rails," and consequently danger of the highest kind. As
his religion was Scriptural, so it was spiritual. In one of his earliest
letters to me, he avowed that the bond of "spiritual
religion" was that by which he felt himself specially bound to
those whose character and spirit showed them to be the true sheep of
Christ's pasture; and in accepting the dedication of my work, he
particularly stated, that the interest that he took in it was not as a
mere matter of literary curiosity, but as being "fitted to
teach great truths, which the world is not very willing to learn." This,
in the connection in which he wrote, evidently had special reference to
the great doctrine of "regeneration." His mind was
deeply penetrated with a sense of the majesty of God, and the "awfulness"
of our relations to Him, in consequence of the sin that has entered
the world, and has infected the whole human race, and therefore he
vividly realised the indispensably necessity of Mediation and Atonement,
to give hope to sinful man in prospect of the grand account.
The origin of that earnestness and attachment to spiritual religion
which he manifested in his last years, was, as I was assured by a
relative now also gone to his reward, the perusal of the tract entitled "Sin
no Trifle." Deep was the impression that tract had made. He
read it, and re-red it, and continually carried it about with him. till
it was entirely worn away. Under the impressions springing from such
views of sin, he said to an intimate friend, when in the enjoyment of
health and vigour, "It is easy to die the death of a gentleman,
but that will not do." His death was not the death of a mere
gentleman. It was evidently the death of a Christian.
The circumstances in which he was removed were fitted to be
peculiarly affecting to me. In reply to a letter--the last which I
received from him--in which he expressed deep interest in the spread of
vital religion, I was led, in pursuance of the theme to which he himself
had specially referred, to dwell more than ever before on the necessity
not merely of having hope towards God, but having the question of
personal acceptance decisively settled, and the consequent habitual
possession of the "joy of salvation," and as one
special reason for this, referred to the fact, that all would be needed
in a dying hour. "And who can tell," I added, "how
suddenly those who are surrounded with all the comforts of life may be
removed from the midst of them?" In illustration of this, I
referred to the affecting case of one whom I had known well, just a
short while before, lost along with his family in the Royal Charter.
Having made a large fortune in Australia, he was returning home, and
when on the point of setting foot on his native shores, with the
prospect of spending his days in ease and affluence, suddenly father and
mother, son and daughter, were all engulfed in a watery grave. My letter
concluded with these words: "In view of such a solemnising
event, well may we say, What is man? But oh, man is great, if he walks
with God, and the divine words are fulfilled in his experience, 'God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our
hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ.' That this may be more and more the experience of
your Lordship, is my earnest desire." When I wrote this I had
not the least suspicion that I was writing to a dying man. But so it
proved to be. Only a few days after he received this, he was smitten
with his death-sickness. From his dying bed he sent me a kindly memorial
of his affectionate remembrance, and in his painful illness he
manifested the supporting power of faith, when faith has respect to the
truth as it is in Jesus, and appropriates Him as a personal and Almighty
Saviour.
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