OR, TRAVELS IN POLYNESIA, CHINA, INDIA, ARABIA, แ AND OTHER HEATHEN" COUNTRIES. BY J. M. PEEBLES, AUTHOR OF "SEERS OF THE AGES," "JESUS,-MYTH, MAN, OR GOD," "SPIRITUALISM "I can not rest from Travel: I will drink Life to its lees." - TENNYSON. SECOND EDITION. BOSTON: COLBY AND RICH, PUBLISHERS, 9 MONTGOMERY PLACE. 1875. Draq 4215. 70.3 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY JUL 1 1914 CHARLES ELLIOTT PERKINS 193,408 fan'ny 2, 1876 رز Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by J. M. PEEBLES, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Stereotyped and Printed by PREFACE. "WHAT I saw" in China, India, Arabia, Egypt, Syria, and other heathen countries, is expressive of this volume's distinctive characteristics. It abounds in precisely such facts about the South-Sea Islanders, Chinese, Hindoos, Arabs, Syrians, and other Asiatics, with the peculiarities of their social and religious life, as all Americans ought to know. Among other reasons, the author visited Polynesia, Asia, and Africa, to personally inform himself touching the difference between life in America, and life in the Orient; and also to more fully understand the real condition of the heathen. He has endeavored to describe what came under his observations with fairness, and a true moral independence. It is quite time that the "heathen" members of a common humanity, and heirs to a conscious immortality, should be described by travelers as they are, giving them the benefit of that "charity which thinketh no evil." A portion of the contents of this book appeared in "The Banner of Light," under the heading "Letters of Travel." These have been revised, and a large amount of such original matter added as relates to the laws, customs, phenomenal manifestations, and ancient religions, born and cradled under the sunny skies of Asia. iii The natural tendency of travel is to give breadth to thought, freedom to philosophy, and a fresh impetus to the humanitarian sentiments of the soul. "Ex Oriente lux!" In "prehistoric pile," in Greek mystery, and Druid circle, in Shemitic prophecy, and Egyptian symbol, as in the science and culture of the present, we read the progress, and the future possibilities, of all tribes and nationalities. "Over space the clear banner of mind is unfurled, AROUND THE CHAPTER I. HAMMONTON TO CALIFORNIA. TRAVEL is an educator. Seeing, in connection with reason and consciousness, is knowing. And knowledge is the stepping-stone to wisdom. Since seeing, then, is knowing, why not see the world? why not traverse lands and seas? why not further lift the veil from Isis? and why not lay the marvelous treasures of antiquity at the feet of the golden present? If essential spirit, as Oriental sage and seer have taught, is causation; if the spiritual is the real; and if this objective life is but the shadow-world of effects, then, that parliaments of angels should conceive plans above to be executed on earth, is both possible and natural. All conscious intelligences must necessarily sympathize. None of us are wholly our own. Uncontrollable circumstances affect, and unseen powers influence us. As mirrors reflect, so mystics, aided by ministering angels, often outline the future. A scroll is now unrolling, a vision fulfilling. The journey enzones the world, via California, Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, Aus |