denied, while
many claim, and indeed the Maji themselves declared, that they never
worshipped fire at all in any other manner than as an emblem of the
divine principle which they believed resided within it. It is probable,
however, from the evidence at hand, that they, like all the other
nations of the globe, prior to the reformation led by Zarathustra and
his daughter, had lost or nearly forgotten the profound ideas connected
with the worship of Nature.

Passion, symbolized by fire, is declared by various writers to have
been the first idol, but later research has proved the falsity of this
assumption. It is true that at an early age of human experience the
creative processes were worshipped, but such worship involved scientific
and, I might say, spiritualized conceptions of the operations of Nature
which in time were altogether lost sight of. Gross phallicism is
clearly the result of degeneration, and of a lapse into sensuality and
superstition.

I think no one can study the facts connected with fire and light as the
Deity in the various countries in which this worship prevailed, without
perceiving the change it gradually underwent during later ages, and the
grossness of the ideas which became connected with it as compared with
an earlier age when mankind "had no temples, but worshipped in the open
air, on the tops of mountains."

In another portion of this work we have observed that in the rites
connected with the worship of Cybele (Light or Wisdom), although phallic
symbols were in use, the ceremonies were absolutely pure, and that
throughout all the earlier ages her worship remained free from the
abominations which characterized the worship of later times.

At what time in the history of the human race the organs of generation
first began to appear as emblems of the Deity is not known. Within
the earliest cave temples, those hewn from the solid rock, sculptured
representations of these objects are still to be observed. Although
until a comparatively recent period their true significance has been
unknown, there is little doubt at the present time that they were
originally used as symbols of fertility, or as emblems typifying the
processes of Nature, and that at some remote period of the world's
history they were worshipped as the Creator, or, at least, as
representations of the creative agencies in the universe.

Concerning the origin and character of the people who executed them
there is scarcely a trace in