Massey's only second son, Fabyan Paul, was born on 23 April 1876 (Sidney
William Dobell died in infancy). That same
year the Spiritualists had been somewhat daunted by the accusation
that Henry Slade, a famed American medium who arrived in England in
July, had been accused of fraud and deception the following
September. Slade, whose speciality was the obtaining of written
messages paranormally on a slate, in ordinary lighting, was accused
following two séances attended by Professor Ray Lankester FRS. Not
happy with the first séance, he was accompanied for the second by
Horatio Donkin, a physician at Westminster Hospital. The almost
instantaneous appearance of writing on the slate, without any sound
of pencil scratching, appeared to Lankester as more than suspicious. Being naturally hasty, and disliking any form of deception, he went
on to denounce Slade in a letter to the Times.[3] Support for Slade, based on personal visits, was given by Professor
William Barrett, Dr Alfred Russel Wallace who also gave evidence at
his trial, and others. At the trial, which commenced on 1 October,
1876, the magistrate excluded all testimonies except those from the
prosecution. A statement made by the stage magician, J. N. Maskelyne,
that the table used by Slade was specially made in order to deceive,
was disproved later in a statement by the workman who made it. Slade
was sentenced under the Vagrancy Act to three months' hard labour,
but the conviction was overturned on appeal.[4]
Newspapers and journals had a field day at Spiritualism's expense.
Punch in particular found the subject worth several piquant and
witty comments. Under one captioned ‘Spiritualism and Swindling’, it
wondered if, pending the prosecution of Slade, it might be
unsuitable to discuss if a medium, in accepting fees for anything
considered spiritual, receives money under false pretences. Those
that do think so might note that the Unita Catholica announced that
the widow of the Duke de Galliera laid a million francs at the feet
of the Holy Father, imploring apostolic benediction on the suffering
soul of her deceased husband. Punch went on to comment that if the
sum was accepted, and His Holiness has got the money, let us trust
that he is a medium who really believes in his own mediumship of
communication with the spiritual world, and in the efficacy of his
benediction to benefit suffering souls in it.[5] Massey wrote a neat epigram to sum up the case:
The Apostle bade us ‘try the spirits’,
And judge them fairly, on their merits,
But did not clear instructions give
For catching things so fugitive
As spirits, in the Lawyer's sieve;
And possibly, he might retort,
‘I didn't mean at Bow-street Court!’ |
Robert Buchanan commented drily that ‘we are not informed whether
the above lines were also given through trance mediumship—if so, I
am at a loss which to admire most—the poetry of the Spirits, or
their satire.’[6] A number of years later the
Echo
made retrospective note of the affair, and of Lankester in
particular. It referred to his high achievements as well as his
dogmatism, remarking that he believed in little else other than
Professor Lankester. Regarding the Slade case, the paper noted his
hostility to all stories of supernaturalism, and to the works of the
Society for Psychical Research under the presidency of Professor
Henry Sidgwick, which he regarded as a waste of time.[7]
During his American tour Massey had also come into contact with
paranormal slate-writing during sittings with Miss Susie Nickerson
and Mrs Hardy, in Boston. Determined to try an experiment, he wrote
the name ‘Pip’ on the slate. This was the name of a favourite dog,
then deceased. On examining the slate again almost immediately, the
writing was found to be almost obliterated, with dampness still
remaining from ‘washing strokes’ similar in width and length to a
dog's tongue. Several members present asked ‘Pip, who?’ On the slate
was then found written ‘Pip Massey’. This experiment was later
repeated. A member of the Boston Post, who had been present and
reported the séance fairly, could not resist a facetious comment in
his account, considered to be unjust by Allen Putnam, a researcher
who had also been in attendance. Putnam wrote:
It was reported that the intelligent and well-known men, … Mr Gerald
Massey, Mr William Lloyd Garrison, Revs. C. A. Bartol and William R.
Alger, believed that Mr Massey's dog, Pip, actually furnished his
own autograph! … [But] no one expressed the opinion that the dog
performed the writing. Probably such a fancy was confined to the
brain of the reporter. The inference that ‘Pip’ had ‘increased
wonderfully in intelligence since his translation to the spirit
realm’, and thereby become competent to handle the slate pencil
intelligently could be drawn by no common intellect—reportorial
training was needful for that.[8]
Due to Massey's increasing involvement with research for his
intended book and his improved financial position at that time, the
family moved in about 1876 to a more modern house, Bordighiera
Villa, 1 Grove Road, New Southgate. Although the title of 'villa'
sounds prestigious, it was used often at that time as a name to
denote a good quality, usually three-storey semi-detached residence. He rented the house for £36 per annum, an average charge for that
type of property in the area. Having three storeys, it might be
assumed that the size would have been adequate for the family, but
with seven children and a housekeeper living in the house,
conditions must have been extremely cramped, and may have been
responsible for some of the children's health afflictions later on.
Since his book on Spiritualism and subsequent concentration on
lecturing, literary activities had ceased apart from a tract (6d.
per hundred, 4s. per thousand, carriage extra) issued in 1877 to
promote Spiritualism. He continued to write an occasional poem
either to give voice to his present opinions or to support a person
whose allegiance to an unpopular cause was akin to his own. An
appeal to his idealism was made by Annie Besant and the Secularists
who, between 1876 and 1879 were collecting funds toward an Italian
committee's memorial to Giordano Bruno, a Dominican monk martyred at
the stake in 1600. A philosophical thinker and sceptical of
Christian dogmas, Bruno was imprisoned for eight years by the
Inquisition for heresy, prior to being put to death as an atheist.
It was considered that his memory would be reflected in the more
recent independent moral philosophies of Garibaldi and Mazzini. The
erection of the statue, strongly opposed by the papacy, took another
ten years before it could be completed. Massey's poem, ‘A Greeting’
dedicated to Annie Besant, later published in the 1896 edition of
Massey's Lyrical Life as ‘Annie Besant’, recognised her as a fellow
worker in the fight for right:
Annie Besant, brave and dear,
May some message, uttered here,
Reach you, ringing golden-clear.
Though we stand not side by side
In the front of battle wide,
Oft I think of you with pride,
Fellow-soldier in the fight!
Oft I see you flash by night,
Fiery-hearted for the Right! …
Bruno lives! Such Spirits come,
Swords, immortal-tempered, from
Fire and Forge of Martyrdom … |
It might be queried why he did not acknowledge also her more valiant
social action in championing the cause of the unfortunate Bryant &
May match girls in 1885 and 1888, but he was abroad touring during
both these times.
|
DR. KENEALY, Q.C.
From a carte-de-visite by The
Stereoscopic Co. |
The next year, 1880, saw the death of his father, aged 84, from
‘senile decay and diarrhoea’ on 6 October, at 5 King Street, Tring,
where he had been living alone attended by neighbours since the
death of his wife six years earlier.
A DUTIFUL SON.
— Gerald Massey was convicted of disobeying an order of
Justices, directing him to pay 3s. 6d. weekly towards
the support of his father and mother who had become
chargeable to the parish of Tring. Order made for
payment of 11s. 6d. expenses, the arrears having been
sent by post. |
At the time of that earlier newspaper report (Bucks Herald, 8
October 1864), Massey was in his usual state of financial distress,
and had temporarily been unable to make the payment.
Also in that year (1880), probably as
the result of his research prior to publication of his Book of the
Beginnings, Massey was elected Chosen Chief of the Most Ancient
Order of Druids, replacing Edward Vaughan Kenealy.[9] Founded in 1781, this order claimed to have traditions extending
from Neolithic times. Its Celtic-Arthurian mystery teachings and the
mysteries of Ceridwen developed to a more modern emergence in the
eighteenth century. As the order was both practical and
philosophical in outlook, a number of prominent persons are said
either to have belonged to a Druid order, or to have been acquainted
with their teachings. These included Bulwer Lytton, Charles
Kingsley, Sir Edwin Arnold and Lewis Spence of the Rosicrucians.
Traces of Druidic teachings are said to be found in the works of
Boehme, William Blake and Swedenborg. The Three Intentions of Druid
Instruction, which must have appealed to Massey, were the training of
the mind; the cultivation of the heart, and the making of true
manliness. Massey remained Chosen Chief of the Order until 1906 when
ill health forced his resignation, and he handed over to John Barry
O'Callaghan. (See under 'Societies' in Appendices.)
By 1881 he had completed his first two volumes of research,
A Book
of the Beginnings, as ‘containing an attempt to recover and
reconstitute the lost origins of the myths and mysteries, types and
symbols, religion and language, with Egypt for the mouthpiece and
Africa as the birthplace’. Elaborately detailed in over a thousand
pages, he commenced with origins depicted in aspects of Egyptian
ritual, correlating them to their equivalent in British mythology,
either by type, sound or analogous meaning. Proceeding in a similar
manner to symbolical customs, Egyptian deities and place names, he
included a list of English and Egyptian words to raise the question
of an independent derivation of a common source. The second volume
dealing with Egyptian origins in Hebrew, Akkado-Assyrian and Maori,
commenced with a similarly comparative vocabulary of Hebrew and
Egyptian words. A section notes parallelism between the Egyptian
Book of the Dead and Hebrew scriptures, continuing with the Egyptian
origin of the Exodus, Moses and Joshua, and Hebrew deities. Egyptian
origins are also noted in Assyria and, finally, he traces roots in
Africa beyond Egypt. Throughout his book he maintained a strong
slant towards astronomical mythology. In order to develop his
theories, he included an enormous amount of information from, among
other sources, ancient Egyptian texts, Biblical archaeology, Records
of the Past, the Old Testament, and the works of Max Müller. But in
an attempt to be as comprehensive as possible, his objectives became
obscured by providing the reader with large amounts of data that
were not supported by refined structuring.
Reviewers of the books were perplexed as how best to deal with them. For their critical remarks most chose his philological section,
which appeared to conflict most clearly with the opinions of that
time. It was easier, also, to pick on the occasional word derivation
for sarcastic comment. The Athenæum, more accustomed to reviewing
his poetical works, referred to the 'two large and sumptuous
volumes' but it was unable to perceive that he possessed the
qualifications requiring a thorough knowledge of anthropology,
comparative philology and mythology, or used caution in the use of
materials in the application of the inductive method. The reviewer
ended with a particularly caustic comment, 'The verses at the
beginning will probably be found by most readers the best part of
the book. The rest is the work of a man who has mistaken his métier.'[10] The
Saturday Review, while noting some philological analogies,
somewhat tongue-in-cheek, skated over the bulk of his work, and
considered that Egypt had never before produced a jest so monumental
and colossal.[11] The Scotsman adopted a similar
tone[12], their reviewer appearing supportive in
considering that …
‘The aim of the work is to demonstrate, or, at the least, to render
credible, the hypothesis that at some far away time, and somewhere
in the interior of Africa, the negro, or primitive man, was evolved
from the ape—for the author is nothing if not an evolutionist—and that, in process of time, the negro race descended the valley of
the Nile, peopled Egypt, became a civilised and cultured people,
sent out colonies all over the world, and spread "mythology,
religion, symbols, language," and all that civilisation implies, to
the uttermost ends of the earth.’
The Scotsman was, however, on firmer ground in sharing the opinion
of most philologists of the time when, in referring to Massey's
“Comparative Vocabulary of English and Egyptian Words,” their
reviewer asked “how many sensible people will trust to the frail and
fantastic structure” with which Massey proposed to bridge the
distance from Egypt to England? This, the reviewer maintained, was
by “the old-fashioned and exploded etymological process in which the
vowels count for nothing, and the consonants for very little more;
and in which, by juggling with letters, any word in any language may
be identified with any other word in any other language of quite
another organic structure.” The reviewer complained that Massey's
special object of abhorrence was Grimm's law[13],
and that Massey had, in dealing with consonants, “made use of every
possible form of permutation without taking into consideration the
phonetic laws and tendencies of the languages to which the words
operated upon belong.” Nevertheless, modern research into the origin
of language suggests that Massey's theory of word classification by
sound and signification does have principles that are broadly
correct.
In contrast, the scientific journal Nature was, in some ways, more
kindly disposed to Massey's examples of evolutionary ethnology,
though also unable to accept much of his philological arguments. However, the reviewer extended credit to Massey for the ingenuity
with which he had endeavoured to build up his theory and, to his
mind, discoveries. He considered the work would be read with
pleasure by some, with amazement by others, and incredulity by
specialists, though too warm and rosy for the chill glance of
science.[14] Equally, the Journal of Science
regarded his book as deserving a calm and serious examination, and
regretted that other commentators had made it a mere peg upon which
to hang jests far from ‘sage born’. It considered that Massey was
operating in the right direction in taking man's origins further
back than Max Müller's roots of language, and saluted Mr Massey as a
fellow evolutionist.[15] [See the Epilogue,
Chapter 9, for notes on this theme.]
During the completion of his next work, The Natural Genesis, five of
his poems on Garibaldi, dating from 1851 to 1871, were gathered
together and republished in 1882 as Garibaldi. A Group of Reprinted
Poems. Garibaldi had died earlier that year. Written at the time of
various crises in the life of Italy's liberator, the poems were
reprinted in Garibaldi's memory at the publisher's request.[16]
Approaching the end of 1882, Massey was again facing financial
hardship. Due to his researches and writing which occupied him for
the whole of each day, there was no money coming in. He had sold the
copyright of his Book of the Beginnings in 1872 in advance of
publication, arranging for a small annual stipend to be paid for ten
years, and this had now expired. His next two volumes were not due
to be published until the following summer. Fortunately he was able
again to obtain support from Lady Alford and Joseph Cowen, and was
granted £50 following an application to the Royal Literary Fund.[17]
Cowen wrote to him on 14 November confirming that he had written to
the Secretary of the Fund, saying that he had received Massey's
first volume, but due to eye trouble and his heavy commitments as an
MP, his reading was limited.
I feel as you do, that every year old friends disappear. Curiously,
however, this morning's post brought me letters from two old
political associates as well as you—Mr C. D. Collett and Mr Thomas
Cooper. I also now and then hear from Harney. He has been in this
country twice recently—once for several months. He is about to
write a history of Chartism.[18]
The Natural Genesis, a further two volumes of over a thousand pages,
was published in July, in which he continued his researches into
mythological and religious evolutionary themes. While dealing
principally with forms of typology originating primarily in Africa,
Massey divided his material to include customs, numbers, myths and
time. Religious myths were, he considered, central to his thesis,
and he included specific sections relating to creation myths, the
deluge and the ark, the fall in heaven and earth, and equinoctial
Christology. The relationships between these, and the ancient
Egyptian religious modes of thought as written in their rituals,
were compared in their development from Gnosticism to the present
Christian dogmas.
Reviews were more guardedly favourable this time, the reviewers
realising to some extent the importance of Massey's conclusions. The
Athenæum, although again condemning his philology and questioning
the value of his result, did note that his work must always have a
value for the anthropologist.[19] The New York
Tribune praised his evolutionary researches and acknowledged his
sifting of the best authorities, but noted that the mass of detail
and accumulation of minute proofs would obscure the significance of
his argument.[20] Additionally, the prestigious
Quarterly Journal of Science considered the work to have importance,
not hesitating to say, ‘if the substance of this work could be
presented in a condensed form … it would form a valuable—almost
necessary—companion to Darwin's Descent of Man, the one work
complementing and supporting the other.’ More favourably inclined to
Massey's philological derivations which were based on things,
objects, and gesture-signs—the actual ‘roots’ of language, the
journal stated that the conclusions reached would be grievously
unwelcome to many. But, ‘it seems that he is turning the only
position of importance still held by our opponents [the
non-Evolutionists], and that his movement, if properly followed up,
will be decisive.’[21] It was reported that
Alfred Russel Wallace, on receiving a copy, wrote, ‘Thanks for your
great and wonderful work. I see it contains many things of profound
interest.’[22]
During Massey's completion of his books, he had been making
arrangements for another American tour. This had become a necessity
for financial reasons, as the proceeds from any of his publications
were minimal. Before he left, he delivered a series of four lectures
out of the thirteen ‘archaic, evolutionary and theosophic subjects’
proposed for America, at St George's Hall, Langham Place. George
Jacob Holyoake had recommended the lectures as being a good sign for
London if Mr Massey has a large audience, as he has always something
of point and weight to say.[23]
The first
lecture, held on Sunday 9 September, 1883, ‘Man in search of his Soul during
50,000 years and how he found it’, showed how his opinions had
changed since his previous lectures at that venue. In introducing
his subject, Massey offered an apology for his performance, to the
effect that he had ‘held his tongue for ten long years, till he half
lost the use of it.’ Having become now more evolutionary in his
principles, he drew an analogy between man's physical form of
evolution and the corresponding enlargement of his consciousness.
Particular emphasis was given to his theories of Africa and Egypt as
having formed the cradle of civilisation. The ‘souls’ to which
Massey referred were, as he put it, the result of human awareness of
questioning ‘What am I?’ The first conception of soul was of blood,
which was life issuing from the mother in the form of a child. The
second was breath, which inspired life into the child. Later
developments attempting to define personality and individuality by
mythical legend or mystical representation, indicated the degree of
knowledge attained at that time. The baptism of infants appeared to
be an attempt to confer on them the final ‘immortal soul’, and from
hence may be derived the term ‘Christening’ and the doctrine of
salvation.
His second lecture on the following Sunday had the subject ‘The
non-historic nature of the Fall of Man, and what it meant as fable’. He traced the development of the earliest non-human elemental powers
(images of natural phenomena) and their association with zootypes,
which were later imaged in the circling of the constellations. These
were the timekeepers who, on account of precession, were
'unfaithful', falling beneath the horizon until being reinstated
again at their next precessional cycle. It was stellar, not human
personages who ‘fell’.
For his third lecture on Sunday 23 September, he chose ‘The
non-historic nature of the Canonical Gospels’. In his introduction,
he said that he regarded two things as constituting the unpardonable
sin of the parents against the helplessness and innocence of
infancy. The one in allowing a child to run the risk of
blood-contamination through the filthy fraud of vaccination, the
other in permitting the soul of a child to be inoculated with the
still more virulent poison of the theological vaccine. Massey did
have practical cause to revile against the first, as one of his
daughters had nearly died as the result of vaccination at an early
age. This was probably Cecilia, who was mentally backward. The
vaccine used at that time was of the ‘live’ variety, and had greater
risk of side effects. ‘I,’ said Massey, ‘in common with others was
vaccinated body and soul, and have to spend the rest of my life in
trying to get rid of the evil effects of the virus. When I lectured
ten years ago, I had not found out the fraud by which we have been
unfathomably befouled. I accepted the canonical gospels as
containing a human history.’ Stating his belief that the Hebrew
miracles developed from Egyptian myths, he detailed many of the
parallels between gospel history and Egyptian ritual texts, to an
appreciative audience.
His last lecture on Sunday 30 September, was his favourite—‘Why does not
God kill the Devil?’ The ‘Devil’ in original ancient mode of thought
being night, or darkness, was a fact in nature. The Hebrew Satan was
the adversary, which swallowed up the light incessantly. Hence the
dualistic aspect of God and the Devil, Cain and Abel, Esau and
Jacob, Horus and Set, etc.[24] This lecture had
the best attendance, the speaker being in excellent form, with a
clear, powerful and sonorous voice.
During this time, an admirer had proposed the formation of a
guarantee fund to assist the independent Massey in his research and
travels.[25] No doubt earnest and well meaning in
his suggestion, this writer's proposal was sharply rebuffed by
Massey:
No doubt the writer meant well, so did Romeo when he stepped in and
caused the death-wound of his dear friend Mercutio, by an action
both futile and fatal. The letter was most injudicious, most
unwarranted, most unauthorised, to say the least of it … In coming
forth to lecture once more, I had no notion of being the personal
herald of a forthcoming subscription to myself. I had no thought of
holding my hat in my hand on the platform, and have no intention of
being posed in that position by any other person... The writer
speaks of my going forth to face the world with my 'tongue in my
hand', but better that, extraordinary as it may be, even though torn
out to realise the figure, than going forth with the tongue in my
cheek. Nor need the writer be distressed at my slender personnel. I
am thin on principle, and have never carried an ounce of spare
flesh. I live by system, and break no dietary law. My heart is
stout, a heart-and-a-half when the pull is up-hill. It is true that
I have suffered from bronchitis; nor could I shake it off whilst
sitting cramped over the desk and working in the dusty atmosphere of
books twelve hours a day seven days a week as I have done for years
… A thousand-fold more than bronchitis would be the suspicion that
in going to America or Australia, I was facing the world with the
begging-box slung furtively at my back! … [26]
Just prior to leaving England for America, Massey applied for a
Visiting Order from the Home Office in order to visit G.W. Foote,
editor of The Freethinker, who was currently in Holloway Gaol for
blasphemy. His application was refused. Foote had been charged in
1882 for publishing some comic Bible sketches, and was undergoing 12
months imprisonment. Following the Judge's (who was a Roman
Catholic) sentence, Foote responded, “Thank you, my Lord, the
sentence is worthy of your creed.” In Foote's book concerning the
trial (Prisoner for Blasphemy. Progressive Publishing Co. 1886 and
online at Project Gutenberg), he mentions Massey: “Mr. Gerald
Massey, then on a visit to England [he was actually leaving for
America] was churlishly refused a visiting order from the Home
Office, but he sent me his two magnificent volumes on ‘Natural
Genesis,’ and a note to the interim editor of the Freethinker,
requesting him to tell me that I had his sympathy. ‘I fight the same
battle as himself,’ said Mr. Massey, ‘although with a somewhat
different weapon.’”
On 9 October 1883 he left England on the 400-berth s.s. City of
Rome, his fellow-passengers including Henry Irving's dramatic
company and the women's rights campaigner
Emily Faithfull, who was
making her third lecture tour of the U.S.A. They arrived in New York
on 21 October.
Massey's first lecture, advertised by the United States Lyceum
Bureau, was held at Chickering Hall on 16 November, on ‘Man in
search of his soul … ’ the first of the series he had given
previously in London. In his introduction, he said:
I have been a fighter on the wrong side all my life … it is not the
way to fortune … I come here to sow the seed, not to reap the
harvest. I come to speak to the New America, the America of the
future, the Continental America … the America of freer thought and
fuller life, that includes Evolution, Spiritualism, Secularism,
Nationalisation of the Land, and other re-formative elements in the
New World's future mental life.
It was unfortunate that he had not explained aspects of his thesis
'The Seven Souls' in greater detail during the course of his
lecture. A reporter from the New York Times then briefly summarised
the lecture:
Since the ascent of man, as unfolded in the doctrine of evolution,
had succeeded the falsehood of his fall, it became necessary to go
back to the beginning, and judge from the actions of primitive man.
The earliest mode of burial had its primary model in the mother's
womb, the idea being to preserve the body for future birth. This is
still represented in the navel mounds of India, the nave of a
church, the Scottish tumulus and other instances. The certainty of a
future after death possessed by primitive man did not come to him by
revelation, for he was neither a metaphysician nor a victim of
diseased subjectivity.
He said the Egyptians together with the Hebrew Rabbis, Druids and
present-day esoteric Buddhists believed in the existence of seven
souls. These souls were: the soul of blood, the soul of breath, the
soul of external perception, the soul of internal perception, the
pubescent soul, the intelligent soul and the immortal soul. This
belief was typified in the seven days of the Book of Genesis. The
Egyptians' struggle for immortality culminated in the mummy,
preservation being the first form of salvation. They believed that
man gained his fifth soul only at puberty, and his sixth at 20 years
of age. Children consequently had only elementary souls, and from
this was derived the false claim of the Church to save the soul of a
child by baptism.
They thought (together with Shamans and others) that they might be
able in a trance state to transform themselves temporarily into
spirits, and used forms of alcoholic beverage to produce that state.
This belief in a spiritual entity which could be separated
permanently from life, was the first conception of immortality.
The lecture was reported similarly by the New York Tribune. The
reporter wrote finally that, ‘… the points made in the lecture will
be found entertaining to those who only take a casual interest in
such subjects.’[27] The Chicago Daily Tribune reported the same
lecture on the 25 November, but with greater (and more necessary)
explanatory detail, and it was unfortunate that the lecture had not
been treated likewise by the New York Times.
The following day, an article appeared in the New York Times under
the heading ‘A New Philosophy’. Written by a reporter who obviously
intended to make the account of the previous day's lecture an object
of fun and derision, it nearly became a disaster for Massey's
lecture tour:
Being an exceptionally profound philosopher, Mr Massey of course
rejects the Christian religion and treats it with lofty contempt …
Through the magnificent vagueness and unequalled unintelligibility
of his lecture we find occasional glimpses of the grand system of
which Mr Massey is the prophet. It consists briefly in the theory
that man has seven souls, and that he obtains proof of the existence
of his seventh and only really valuable soul by getting drunk. The
state of drunkenness is a state of ‘spiritual awakenment’; and in
this state man may interrogate nature, become as ‘a spirit among
spirits’, and indulge in various other useful and entertaining
games. The divine drunkenness of which Mr Massey treats is not
produced exclusively by alcohol or opium. Mesmerism is a cheaper
stimulant, and what is known as the trance state is the variety of
drunkenness best adapted for communion with our seventh soul … In
the enquiry what must a man do to be saved … Mr Massey's
answer virtually is: ‘Get drunk and commune with your seventh soul.’
… Philosophers could have attained the summit of all knowledge by
the help of a few mesmeric passes or a few gills of whisky … It
could be wished that he had explained the connection between the
seven souls of man and the nine lives of cats. There must be some
connection, for both nine and seven are sacred numbers … Mr Massey
should investigate this great question, and Colney Hatch would
afford him the quiet and seclusion necessary for this purpose.[28]
Although he usually ignored unfavourable comments in newspapers, it
would be an understatement to say that Massey was annoyed by this
particular report. After consulting solicitors, he immediately
issued a writ for defamatory, malicious and injurious libel before
the Supreme Court, King's County, against George Jones as treasurer
of the New York Times Publishing Association, laying damages at
$5,000. Having given particulars of his previous reputation in the
general field of literature and his more recent research studies, he
detailed the untruths of statements made in the article. In his
lecture he had mentioned the opinions that various nations have held
as to the nature of the soul of man, and of those who have believed
that man had seven souls. Also, he had spoken of the evolution of
those opinions, an upward series of seven types, the culmination of
which was the fact of only one enduring soul. The references to
drunkenness were utterly false and untrue. He claimed that by the
false and defamatory libels set forth, he had suffered loss in
character as an author, writer; lecturer and as a man, and his
purposes as a lecturer had thereby been defeated, and his
prospective engagements thwarted to his great damage.[29]
Massey's comments (also in Natural Genesis I, vii, 388-393
and Lectures 'Man in Search...', 208-211) regarding Shamans
and their trance states induced by alcohol or – more usually – by
hallucinogens have received more academic research since then. See
The Mind in the Cave. Consciousness and the Origins of Art,
by David Lewis-Williams, Thames & Hudson, 2002.
At an interview given to a reporter on the Brooklyn Eagle on the 6
January 1884 in which he mentioned his libel suit, he said all he
demanded was vindication. He was not after the money, but he felt it
was his duty as a public man to try and stop the system which he
said was practiced with impunity by certain papers in the country. He had supposed America to be a free country where a man could utter
his thoughts, however novel they might appear, without being called
a lunatic. For years, he said, he had been at work on his new
philosophy, encouraged with the thought that he would be able to
present the result of his labours before American audiences, such as
he had had when he was here eight years ago. "It is rather hard," he
said, "to be met on the very threshold of my return to America with
such a reception."
Subsequent to the issuing of the writ, he was advised against
proceeding further.[30] It appears likely that the time spent in an
ensuing court case would have seriously impeded or even necessitated
the cancellation of the remainder of his lecture tour. The damages
claimed, if he had been successful, may not have covered the
financial expectations of a full tour, and had he lost the case it
would have been a financial disaster.
Immediately following the lecture, Massey was taken ill with
bronchitis and a tonsil abscess brought about, he thought, on
account of the cold weather of that week. This caused the
cancellation of his remaining three booked lectures, and some
unforeseen expense. A Catholic paper, published in Brooklyn, gave
personal feelings of delight that Massey did not appear to be
meeting with much success on his second visit to the United
States.[31]
Following two months of recuperation, his reputation apparently
undamaged, he felt able to recommence his tour. He began with a
series of four lectures at the Old Baptist Church, 133 Clinton
Avenue, Brooklyn. Two of these lectures were new, ‘The Non-historic
nature of the Fall of Man’ and ‘Non-historic nature of the Canonical
Gospels’.[32] Judge A. H. Dailey presided for his first, the now
infamous ‘Man in search of his Soul …’ The reporter found Massey
to be:
… at the grand climacteric of life; and is below the medium
stature. Grey whiskers, of English trim, half mask a face which
wears a look of intensity as he plows through the mystical domains
of Egyptology and the shadowlands of the ancient Orient. Brown hair,
with occasional streaks of grey, rolls forward in a billow on his
crown, and ripples off from the ears. He wears spectacles when he
reads from manuscript. He spoke for nearly two hours with such rapid
enunciation that his hearers were strained to follow him.[33]
From Judge Dailey's residence at 252 Bushwick Avenue where he was
staying, not yet fully recovered from the trauma of the aborted
court action and subsequent ill-health, he wrote to Harry Edwards on
25 February:
You put a little new life into me on Saturday. I was losing heart
and nerve. But, we must make this a success or I shall feel worse
than before. To your 25 or 10 or 5 Dollar friends you may hint of my
illness and that this is a sort of benefit Lecture …
Leaving Brooklyn he went in early March to Gill's Hall, Springfield,
Mass.[34], where he wrote to Edwards again:
Heartfelt thanks for your kindly note. All right. What I make here
will keep me going. I did not know that I was to stay over the two
Sundays here. I look in at Dailey's on Tuesday and go to
Philadelphia on Thursday, then back to Dailey's. I have an offer
from Cleveland for a course of Lectures, at a price, early in April. So it begins to look as tho' with your invaluable help the worst is
over and I shall get along. The improved prospect puts me in better
spirits. Indeed, I am fighting down my nervous dyspepsia fast … [35]
From Springfield he went then to Cleveland, at the Church of the
Unity, on 8 April, for a series of five lectures. Prior to leaving
Cleveland he gave a short talk to the Children's Progressive Lyceum,
on ‘The Origin of some of our everyday Habits and Customs’.[36] On his
way to San Francisco he stayed to lecture in Power's Opera House,
Grand Rapids, Michigan, from 21 to 28 April which the Eagle
reported, and noted his delivery ‘as like the rushing storm’.[37] Professor Marvin Vincent, a theologian, commented, ‘He is a splendid
lecturer. He went off like the eighty-one ton pounder. I didn't
agree with his opening remarks, but it was like a shell bursting
among us, and we had enough to do to look out during the rest of the
lecture.’[38]
Having arrived in San Francisco, he was met by a reporter from The
Call on 23 June 1884, who asked him for his impressions of America
before he continued his onward journey to Australia. He used the
opportunity to restate his beliefs concerning capital, labour and
co-operation, which had remained a firm conviction since his
Chartist days. (Appendix D.)
Massey's first lecture in Australia was in Freemasons' Hall, Sydney,
on 12 August 1884. For his subject, ‘The Man Shakespeare with
Something New’, he was introduced by His Honour Mr Justice Windeyer
as the first English poet that had visited Australia. The hall was
crowded to capacity. Following the lecture the poet was cheered by
the enthusiastic audience. They again showed their appreciation when
it was mentioned that Massey was the critic who, in the Athenæum had
first introduced the Australian poet Henry Kendall to the rest of
the world.[39]
From Sydney he went on to Melbourne for a conversazione of the
Victorian Association of Spiritualists on 29 September, where he
spoke in general terms on the subject. Remarking on the divergences
of opinion within their ranks, he thought it was in many ways an
advantage, making those people independent in mind. He did consider,
nevertheless, that a loose confederation would assist them to agree
on plans of action.[40]
With regard to Massey's visit to Melbourne, it is interesting to
speculate if John James Bezer, who had left England under a cloud in
1852, and was living in Melbourne at this time, had heard of the
visit. If he had, he would certainly have avoided Massey. See the
author's John James Bezer, Chartist, and John Arnott, National
Charter Association (lulu.com 2008).
In Ballerat, New South Wales, he irritated the religious dogmatists
before returning to Sydney at the Theatre Royal. After giving
several lectures he was taken ill, which lost him two months, but
was able to continue with further lectures at West's Academy in May,
before sailing to Auckland, New Zealand, in August.[41] The local
Rationalist reported large sections of his lectures, which also
received fair commenting from the national press. Towards the
completion of his tour in the colonies, he was frequently asked for
his opinions on their culture and social state:
I have been twelve months in the Colonies, and still feel that I
want to come back to see what I think. Roughly speaking, I see a
land of coarse plenty, which must be a paradise to myriads of
emigrants half starved at home … Douglas Jerrold said of the
soil out here, that if you tickled it with a hoe, it would laugh out
with a harvest. It strikes me there has been too much tickling with
a hoe—too much surface work. You want a lot of our small farmers
with some means of their own—the men who are being ousted from the
land at home every day … One thing I have been delighted with, that
is the universal use made of flowers as a daily beauty in the homes
of the people, wherever I have been. I have been struck with the
look of English solidity in buildings.
Asked if he considered free trade or protection best for a young
colony like New Zealand, in relation to local industries, he
replied:
I am a freetrader myself, and I consider that England has absolutely
demonstrated the benefits of free trade for the whole people. I
should be very chary of protecting anything, although there may be
necessary exceptions in a young colony... It is not the duty alone
that tells, but the profit on the duty. Thirty per cent duty means
another 30 per cent to the purchaser. A 1s 6d bottle of eau de
cologne in London, is 2s in Sydney, and 3s in Auckland and Dunedin. Nor is it necessary for all people to produce all things, as if they
were going to stand a siege against all the rest of the world.[42]
In spite of the litigation concern and health problems that caused
delays to his tour, he appeared satisfied with the result, and left
for England in November.
During his travels, Massey must have read about the Pall Mall
Gazette's articles ‘The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon’ which, in
May 1885, had exposed large scale prostitution and white slave
traffic in London. William T. Stead, editor of the journal and
author of the articles had been less than circumspect in obtaining
evidence, and was imprisoned for three months on charges of
abducting a minor. J. O. Baylen in the Victorian Periodicals
Newsletter traced a copy of Massey's poem ‘Greeting to W. T. Stead’
which Massey had sent to Stead, presumably in January, the month of
his release, congratulating him on his crusade.[43] This was not
published in Stead's journal, but another copy, with some minor
variations and an extra verse, was published in the Medium and
Daybreak, 22 January 1886. Stead had been released from prison on 18
January, and the additional penultimate verse indicates that
particular event:
… And so we greet him at the Prison-porch,
With bosoms beating music for his march,
And hearts uplifted like a Triumph-Arch.
Honour to him, we cry, who sought to save
The Girls dragged down our gutters to the grave!
For him our plaudits ring and welcomes wave. |
The poem was reprinted by Massey in 1889, as ‘At the Prison-door’,
again with an extra verse and some amendments.[44]
On 28 March 1886 he was ready to recommence his lecturing with a
welcome at St George's Hall, for which the Reverend Stainton Moses
had urged a large attendance. Samuel Carter Hall, then aged 86, who
had supplied evidence to the Dialectical Society and provided
valuable assistance to D. D. Home during his trial, expressed his
regret at being unable to attend:
Dear Gerald Massey,
I wish to let you know that nothing but very severe illness would
have prevented my attending your Lectures, which I am very sure will
be of deep interest and value. I should like to write you a long
letter, but, in truth, I cannot. I am very near to death. To borrow
a saying of my old friend Thomas Hood, ‘I am so near Death's door
that I fancy I can hear the creaking of the hinges’ … I shall long
precede you out of this life, but I may be, I believe that I shall
be, one of your helpers in the next … [45]
Massey responded to the greeting:
I sometimes feel that the assurance of Spiritualism must almost make
me seem brutal in my acknowledgement of death … It is, however,
betwixt a smile and a tear that I think of you looking back here for
work to do, at a time when all good Christians are looking forward
to doing nothing whatever but lying down lazily in the oyster-beds
of everlasting repose …
Of the more worldly affairs during 1886, nothing provided more
attention than the general election. Fought principally on the issue
of Irish Home Rule, Gladstone's ‘Bill for the Better Government of
Ireland’ was defeated with the aid of dissident Liberals. Randolph
Churchill aided Salisbury's Conservative Party with an onslaught
against Gladstone, and the Conservatives were returned to power in
July. Massey, who always had strong political interests, supported
Gladstone, particularly on the front of Home Rule. Prior to the
election, he wrote a pamphlet of six ‘Election Lyrics’ which were
published by Burns, and sold at 'Twopence each; 7/6 per 100; 30/-
per 1000'. The sales are not recorded. Politically satirical as
compared with his radical protests of the 1850s, the lyrics were
cleverly constructed and topical. ‘The Poet of the People uttered
the voice of the People.’ He exhorted them to ‘Vote for the
Liberation Laws, The Grand Old Man, and the Great New Cause!’ and
criticised the Conservative Primrose League. The League had been
formed by Lord Randolph Churchill and some of his friends in 1883 to
promote the political opinions of the Tory party in a more popular
manner. From their base at 20 Essex Street, Strand, they aimed to
maintain the union of the Crown, the Constitution, and the Country. The name of the League was suggested by the late Lord Beaconsfield's
favourite flower. Queen Victoria had acknowledged this by sending a
wreath of primroses to be placed on his tomb on 19 April, the
anniversary of Beaconsfield's death, thus commencing the annual
Primrose Day.[46] The league was very well organised, and became a
powerful force in obtaining votes. Advertisements for Primrose
pocket handkerchiefs, Primrose tooth powder, Beaconsfield sun shades
and skirts were widely placed in journals. The Grand Council had two
Grand Masters, the Marquess of Salisbury and the Earl of Iddesleigh,
followed by trustees, and a large Grand Council. Branches, known as
‘habitations’ were formed countrywide under the old ‘orders of
knighthood’ basis, with members joining as knights or squires. Habitations were subdivided into wards, each ward consisting of one
or more blocks of buildings, controlled by a ‘warden’, which
facilitated intensive canvassing. Early in its formation, the league
recognised the importance of women as a political force, and a
special branch for them, the ‘Dames’, was formed the following year
under the presidency of the Marchioness of Salisbury. Lady Randolph
Churchill was a vice-president. The dames appreciated the primrose
as being representative, as they considered it possessed their own
characteristics attributed by Burns to the daisy, of being both ‘wee
and modest’—although approval by a dame of the league was to mean
more than the favour of a gracious smile. They assisted their
knights very effectively in the canvassing duties. In 1886 the
league had a membership of half a million people.[47]
The Primrose Dame is a likely lass,
To wile and wheedle the Working Class
Of their Votes - her end and aim.
A vision of beauty, in by-way or street,
Is the glance of her face, or a glimpse of her feet,
When a-foot is the Primrose Dame …
Soliciting votes, she is not shy,
Will let you light your pipe at her eye, -
Kindle your fire with her flame;
But look for the snare when you see the smile,
Under the Primrose she can beguile:
Beware of the Primrose Dame … |
In a later edition of the poems he added a further verse:
‘Refreshments at five, in the Primrose Bower!
You WILL come? You WILL wear it? MY favourite flower?
HIS flower who gave it HIS fame!'
And the touch is of velvet, the look is of love:
But beware of the claw that is sheathed in the glove
Of the Beaconsfield Primrose Dame.[48] |
Lecturing occupied most of Massey's time for the next two years. Another series of ten at St George's Hall commenced on 31 August,
and included Shakespeare and Burns as a lighter variation on his now
more orthodoxy opposed subject matter. As a result of his
iconoclastic change of stance he found himself in greater conflict
with accepted authorities on biblical and mythological exegesis, as
well as with some of his Spiritualistic advocates. Dr James Peebles,
a Christian Spiritualist, had been lecturing in Australia in 1874 on
‘Spiritualism defined and defended’. There he had been referred to
as ‘the American devil-rapper’, ‘bold infidel’, ‘long-haired
apostate’, and other unflattering terms to which even Massey, with
the occasional exception, had not been subjected.[49]
Massey was now firmly against the literal interpretation of biblical
narrative. He declared that the Christ of the Canonical Gospels was
not to be resolved into the man whose identity is acknowledged by
the Jews; but could be traced by trait, characteristic and
character, to the several copies of the Egyptian prototype,
especially to the Horus-Christ of the Osirian religion, who was
continued as the Horus of the Gnostics, and who is developed as the
Christ in the Catacombs of Rome. Peebles had complained of Massey's
anti-Christian opinions, to which Massey had responded by referring
to Peebles as ‘one of those professed Spiritualists who are the very
worst cacklers on behalf of historic Christianity, as if they were
the Geese who are going to save Rome for the second time’.[50] Massey
was also attacked by William Coleman in the Chicago Religio-Philosophical
Journal, on a lecture ‘The Historical Jesus and Mythical Christ’
which had been published in the Medium and Daybreak. Coleman, in
some detail, accused Massey's parallels between the New Testament
and Egyptian mythology as being far-fetched, incongruous, absurd,
and positively false in construction.[51]
As no copy was sent to him, Massey was unable to reply until the
following March. By that time Coleman had written a letter in the
same journal on 5 February, ‘Opinions of eminent Egyptologists
regarding Mr Massey's alleged Egypto-Christian parallels’. Quoting a
letter on the subject by Professor Sayce, in which Sayce referred to
Massey's books as ‘a mass of ignorance and false quotation’, he
mentioned a letter from an Egyptologist connected with the British
Museum, who did not want his name published ‘owing to the rather
personal character of some of his remarks’. This person had written,
with other assertions, that Massey was ‘an ignoramus of the worst
kind’. Massey was quick to take up the challenge, and wrote to Mr Le
Page Renouf at the British Museum, as being the most likely person
to have made the statements, but Mr Renouf declined either to admit
or deny having been the author. Massey replied in a very abrasive
manner to the points made by Mr Coleman, whom he judged to be
incompetent to discuss matters of Egyptology. Strangely, Coleman had
written in his article ‘that there is no reasonable doubt in the
light of historico-critical biblical science, that while large
portions of the latter [John's Gospel] are genuinely historical, the
Gospel of John, as a whole, is unhistorical, mythical’, and Massey
was quick to take up that point. Welcoming honest criticism and
genuine correction, Massey said that he had spared no time to get at
his facts, and neglected no source of knowledge. He had learned the
Egyptian Book of the Dead nearly off by heart, and consulted with Dr
Samuel Birch regarding variant texts, who also had corrected his
proofs and gave him advice. And that, he added bitingly, was a great
disadvantage when being judged by Mr Coleman![52] He had also received
assistance from Claude Montefiore, a Hebrew religious and biblical
studies authority as well as from Goldridge Pinches, Lecturer on
Assyria at the British Museum. [Birch/Pinches correspondence,
British Library.] Massey's ‘Retort’ was appreciated by a
pseudonymous ‘M.A. (Cantab.)’. He mentioned that Le Page Renouf, who
had succeeded Dr Samuel Birch as Keeper of the Egyptian Antiquities
at the British Museum, was a Roman Catholic, and queried his
judgement on religious philosophy. Although the Egyptian origin of
Christianity was an old theory, Massey's discoveries built a firmer
foundation for this thesis. Even if several facts were found to be
errors either of judgement or other cause, the force of the array of
the others is undiminished.[53]
On 11 November Massey was in Glasgow, when his subject incurred the
displeasure of the Christian Leader. Under the heading of ‘A wasted
life’ the journal stated its orthodox indignation against that part
of the audience who showed their appreciation of some of Massey's
comments:
Shame on the men who laughed outright, and deeper shame on the few
women who veiled their smiles at the wittily couched blasphemies
which interspersed Gerald Massey's lecture last week on the
historical (Jewish) Jesus, and the Mythical (Egyptian) Christ! I saw
a minister present. Why did he not speak out against the man who had
the effrontery to state that Christianity has for eighteen hundred
years presented a sorry spectacle trooping after paganism! …
Granted, as Massey asserts, that nearly all the passages in our
Lord's life had parallels in heathen mythology long before Christ's
advent, would not this alone be sufficient reason for the Redeemer
to gather up these dim threads of expectation, and weave them into
His own personality so as to present to the heathen mind the
completion of what the fable-links had indicated? … [54]
This attack was ignored by Massey, although undoubtedly brought to
his attention.
In Edinburgh he mentioned that in spite of the wretched wet weather
he had done fairly well, and had been reported in a somewhat "brief
but dynamitish" fashion by The Scotsman. Massey may have been
referring to the edition of 22 October 1886, which carried a report
on his lecture in the Albert Hall, Edinburgh on ‘Paul the Gnostic—not a Witness for Historic Christianity.’[55]
Massey's next intended visit, to Newcastle, was spoiled by a series
of misunderstandings. When he suggested a fee of £30 for four
lectures, he received no reply from the Newcastle Spiritualists. On
then asking for an offer, they said they could pay £3 3s plus the
hall and advertisements for two nights, but no expenses. Neither of
these suggestions being satisfactory to both parties, further
proposals were made, which then became confused, with the whole
affair ending in publicised acrimony. However, it appeared not to
have damaged Massey's lecture tour, the paper being less sympathetic
to the Newcastle Society when it stated that generosity in the form
of a more handsome offer for such services was desirable.[56]
A few years after he had received his Civil List Pension in 1863, it
was proposed by friends that an application should be made for an
extension of the sum that had been granted. This course was urged
also by Lord Lytton, who had written on 15 July 1866:
Dear Mr. Massey,
I was sorry to hear that you did not receive a more adequate
pension. I should be willing to sign a memorial with others; and I
advise you to get one prepared, stating the circumstances, and
asking for an increase of the amount now given. I think you well
worthy of whatever pension can be allowed from the fund set apart
for literary men.
Yours,
Lytton.[57]
But due to his involved personal affairs and American tours, he had
been unable to act on this advice at the time. He now prepared the
necessary Memorial and sent it to the Rt. Hon. W. H. Smith, the
First Lord of the Treasury. Forty-two signatures were appended for:
Your Lordship's most considerate attention, and venture to hope that
your Lordship may see fit to recommend Mr Massey's name for an
extension of the amount now granted, that his lot may be made a
little lighter, and his chance increased for rendering fuller
justice to the literary talent which, according to the undersigned,
has already done good service.
The forty-two names appended included those of Lady Marian Alford,
Matthew Arnold, Robert Browning, Richard Burton, William Crookes,
David Masson, George Meredith, Henry Morley, Herbert Spencer and
John Tyndall. This application proved to be successful, and on 1
April, 1887, ‘in consideration of his literary merit, and of the
smallness of his means of support’ he was awarded an extra £30 per
annum.[58]
Since 1883 Massey had realised the desirability of providing short
synopses of some of the principal areas in his Book of the
Beginnings and Natural Genesis as suggested by the Quarterly Journal
of Science (vide sup.). Certain reviewers had commented on the
complexity of the material, and he had received enquiries from other
persons, particularly Freethinkers, Secularists and Spiritualists,
concerning publication of abstracts. As his current lecture courses
were derived from these large works, he prepared a series of ten for
private publication in 1887. These included several of the lectures
that he was currently presenting, together with some additional
titles. In these short published lectures (Gerald
Massey's Published Lectures) he demonstrated his
research into the African origin and development of myth, symbol,
language and religion by the use of a system of typologies that he
developed as a method of classification. These included totemic
typology, primitive customs, numbers, time, the mythical serpent,
the cross, the four quarters, mythical creations, etc. He stated
that mythology is a mode of representing certain elemental powers by
means of living types that were superhuman-like phenomena in nature,
i.e. representation on the ground of likeness. They were
representatives of certain natural forces, from which the earliest
gods evolved. How these were thought of and expressed constitute the
primary stratus of what is termed 'Mythology' today. Early man made
use of 'things' to express their thoughts, and these 'things' became
symbols—outward and visible shapes of ideas—the beginning of
gesture sign-language by imitation being earlier than words. As an
example, Massey notes that the figure of an eye directly represents
sight and seeing, but the eye as reflector of the image becomes a
symbol. Myths were therefore founded on natural phenomena and remain
in the register of the earliest scientific observation. Massey
treats mythology as 'the mirror of prehistoric sociology.' Throughout his works, when examining racial mythology, Massey places
particular emphasis on ancient Egyptian myths (the most developed in
African culture) and general mystery religions. He maintains that
these myths developed as a necessary and fundamental central core of
belief from earliest times, and are the roots of modern cultural
origins. Intrinsic to these beliefs are world-wide convictions that
support the particular idea of the post-mortem persistence of the
human soul. In Egypt, for example, prayers and offerings were not
made to the person of the deceased (represented as a type of
transformation by the dead Mummy—a mortal likeness), but to the
ka-image, a likeness of the person's soul that lived on after death.
Elaine Pagel’s introduction to her
Adam, Eve, & the Serpent (Wiedenfeld & Nicolson 1988) p. xix
quotes the anthropologist Clifford Geertz' definition of culture as
"an historically transmitted pattern of meaning embodied in symbols;
a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic form, by
means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their
knowledge about and attitude to life." This would certainly equate
with Massey's concise concept of mythology as being "the mirror of
prehistoric sociology" and the Oxford definition of culture as
"ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular people or
society."
It has to be noted that the lectures were published in 1887, and due
account must be taken of research and archaeological discoveries
made since then. Elements of these must necessarily amend some of
his details and conclusions.
Massey's theme in his Paul as a Gnostic opponent, not the Apostle of
Historic Christianity—and comments of some later scholars regarding
Gnosticism were reinforced by the discovery in 1945 at Nag Hammadi,
Egypt, of twelve 2nd/3rd century Coptic Gnostic codices. Bart Ehrman
in his Lost Christianities. The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths
we never knew (OUP 2003) quotes from a section of 'The Apocalypse of
Peter' in which Peter witnessed the crucifixion. What was crucified
was not the divine Christ, but his physical shell. Jesus replied to
Peter's query as to whose hands and feet they were hammering:
The Saviour said to me, "He whom you see above the cross, glad and
laughing, is the living Jesus. But he into whose hands and feet they
are driving the nails is his physical part, which is the substitute
… "
The Gnostics believed that salvation does not come in the body, but
by the divine spirit escaping the body, which is the physical shell,
and that the physical death of Jesus was not therefore the key to
salvation. It is not the dead Jesus that saves, but the true self—the Divine Essence. Before the publication of Massey's lectures in
1887, portions of gospel texts associated with Paul were considered
corrupt. Since then, further biblical exegesis (such as the Nag Hammadi cache discovery) has continued to cast doubt on the accuracy
of a number of works attributed to Paul and other writers. Bart Ehrman—vide supra,—Barry Layton's
The Gnostic Scriptures (1987)
and Elaine Pagels' The Gnostic Paul (1975) confirm the multiplicity
of groups with diverse ideas in that period that gave rise to
conflicting opinions in their writings. Although known Gnostic
writings have not been dated before the early 2nd century,
mythological elements may probably have existed from an earlier
date. It appears also that the Gnostics had much in common with
early non-Gnostic Christians. But can Paul be termed a 'Gnostic' as
a classic term, as Massey asserted? A form of philosophical Jewish
mysticism comprised an integral part of Gnostic beliefs, and it is
likely that Paul understood some of those beliefs. Both Jesus and
Paul as cited in the gospel texts spoke often in parables that were
symbolic, and not to be taken literally. Pagels—supra—notes two
conflicting images of Paul. Traditionally in one image he is viewed
as a Christian literalist and anti-Gnostic, in the other as a
symbolic Gnostic—supporters of each both claiming to be
authentically Christian. Massey takes the latter, Gnostic view,
giving his thesis a marked bias in that direction.
To some extent also, is Massey's overstatement of the importance of
the phenomena of Spiritualism that runs thematically throughout many
of his works. His lecture
The coming religion provides a good
example. Whilst not necessarily doubting the earliest forms of
psychic phenomena and its important influence, or some of the more
modern exponents, it does appear that Massey at times became less
that critical when taking that particular approach.
The Theosophists were also very interested in his works, and held
him in high regard except for a number of his opinions on the
relevance of secret forms of mysticism. Madame H. P. Blavatsky
quoted him twenty-four times in her Secret Doctrine, and wrote to
him on 2 November 1887:
… I have read and re-read your Lectures, and the more I read them the more
I rejoice, for whatever there is in them (except your unjust
pitching, semi-unjust at any rate, into esoteric Buddhist and our septenary idea) is a corroboration of our esoteric teaching … I
quote you constantly, and, for me, you are the only man in Europe
and America who understands that symbolism correctly … You differ
from us in several important points, such as not accepting the
Avatars, or the spirit of Christos, Buddha, Krishna, (rather
Vishnu), &c., otherwise than as purely subjective manifestations. We
say that, with regard to the Gnostic Christ, you are absolutely
right … I say, Mr Massey, glory and honour to you … [59]
When Massey had this letter published in 1891, he wrote an open
reply referring to one of his lectures,
The Seven Souls. In this, he
had written of theosophy, or esoteric Buddhism as it was then
called, in terms that could hardly have brought a smile to the face
of the usually inscrutable ‘H.P.B.’
They are blind guides who seek to set up the past as superior to the
present, because they may have a little more than ordinary knowledge
of some special phase of it … I do not want to find out that I am a
god in my inner consciousness; I do not seek the eternal soul of
self. I want the ignorant to know; the benighted to become
enlightened; the abject and degraded to be raised and humanised; and
would have all means to that end proclaimed world-wide, not patented
for the individual few, and kept strictly private from the many … I
cannot join in the new masquerade and simulation of ancient
mysteries manufactured in our time by Theosophists, Hermeneutists,
pseudo-Esoterics, and Occultists of various orders, howsoever
profound their pretensions … The only interest I take in the ancient
mysteries is in ascertaining how they originated, in verifying their
alleged phenomena, in knowing what they meant on purpose to publish
the knowledge as soon and as widely as possible … Mystery has been
called the mother of abominations; but the abominations themselves
are the superstitions, the rites and ceremonies, the dogmas,
doctrines, delusive idealisms, and unjust laws that have been
falsely founded on the ancient mysteries by ignorant literalisers
and esoteric misinterpretation.
[Chapter 8]
NOTES
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