Section III. The Reception Accorded to “The True Key.”

Stephen D. Peet, Editor of "American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal:"—

I believe that you have struck a very rich field in your pamphlet on the ancient cosmology. I have long surmised that there was something back of the astrology of the ancients which had exerted a great influence on the religious conceptions, and even on the literary and speculative thoughts of the ancients, but have to thank you for putting together the facts so as to discover the key.

J. Henry Thayer, D. D., late Professor of Greek and N. T. Interpretation, Andover Theological Seminary, now Professor of the same in Harvard University Divinity School:—

Allow me to express my great interest in your Key to Ancient Cosmology. It gives one a sense of relief amounting to satisfaction at its very first perusal. I shall take great interest in teaching it.

James Freeman Clarke, D. D., author of "Ten Great Religions," etc.:—

It seems to me to throw much light on many passages in the classic writers. . . . I cannot help thinking that your view will be a key to unlock many obscure passages.

The seven following extracts fairly illustrate the mass of the communications received since the publication of "Homer's Abode of the Dead," which paper was issued in

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advance of the present volume simply as a further illustration of the correctness and utility of "The True Key." Each is from the pen of a European scholar of first rank, and the last of them from one of the most widely known of German Egyptologists. Not having as yet permission to use the names of the writers, they are here withheld.

I thank you very much for sending me the "Boston University Year Book," containing your interesting article on the Underworld of Homer.

Many thanks for your letter and for the interesting paper in the "Boston University Year Book" which has followed it. The illustration of your theory which is furnished by the Voyage of the Egyptian Sindbad is very striking, and must be most gratifying to you. I can find no objection to your view except those suggested by the original meaning of the words Amenti and Erebos (Assyrian eribu = ’erebh); and I am therefore inclined to subscribe to all that Professor Tiele has written you in regard to it. That in Homer the earth is supposed to be a sphere, with Olympos above and Tartaros below, clears up every difficulty.

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I read your paper with great interest and pleasure. Now again you have put your favorite thesis so clearly and forcibly that I incline more and more to your opinion. I only wait, before surrendering, for some leisure to go accurately over the principal facts and citations.

Freundlichen Dank für Ihre gütigen Zeilen und den sie begleitenden interessanten Aufsatz. Ihre Hypothese ist höchst überraschend, und würde, sollte sich ihre Richtigkeit auf ganz feste Füsse stellen lassen, in der That mit einem Male Ordnung in eine besonders krauss verwirrte Frage bringen. . . . Sobald es Ihnen nachzuweisen gelingt, dass in der Volksvorstellung der Griechen aus früherer Zeit die Erde kugelförmig

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war, werden Sie die Schlacht gewonnen haben, und Niemand wird es fürder wagen dürfen die Stimme gegen Ihre Ansicht zu erheben. Es will mir nicht unmöglich scheinen, Spuren solcher Anschauung zu finden, zumal da die Egypter ganz gewiss schon früh Kenntniss von der Kugelgestalt der Erde besassen. . . . Trotz dieser Bedenken hat mich Ihr Aufsatz lebhaft interessirt. Leider werde ich aus Gesundheitsrücksichten den Orientalisten-Congress zu Leyden nicht besuchen dürfen; es sollte mich aber freuen, wenn die von Ihnen so geistreich angeregte interessante Frage während desselben zur Discussion käme.

More and more decided are the latest verdicts of American scholars. The following are a half dozen specimens from a considerable collection.

The Rev. A. P. Peabody, D. D., LL. D., Professor Emeritus in Harvard University:—

I have read not only with pleasure, but also with profit, your essay on Homer's "Abode of the Dead." Your theory accords with my impression, and makes that impression—before vague and with less than sufficient reason—definite and well grounded.

C. C. Everett, D. D., Dean of the Theological Faculty of Harvard University, and Professor of Comparative Theology:—

So far as Homer is concerned, your view is certainly fitted to remove grave difficulties.

J. R. Boise, D. D., LL. D., Professor in the Baptist Union Theological Seminary, Chicago:—

The able and learned article on Homer's "Abode of the Dead" has interested me deeply, and I believe your view is the correct one.

Edwin Post, Ph. D., Professor of Latin, Indiana Asbury University, Greencastle, Ind.:—

I have recently re-read your monograph on Ancient Cosmology,

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and I am more and more convinced that your startling hypothesis will be verified more and more by comparative study.

George Zabriskie Gray, S. T. D., Dean of the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Mass.:—

I have read your treatise with great interest, and desire to thank you for your work. It seems to me that your theory meets the test of all theories, that of accounting for the facts that cannot otherwise be reconciled. Besides thus reconciling the statements of ancient authors regarding the world and the underworld, your theory enables us to see in their writings many new and fruitful suggestions regarding matters hitherto unnoticed and unsuspected. Trusting that this treatise may receive the attention and currency which it so eminently deserves, I remain, etc., etc.

Rev. A. B. Hyde, D. D., Professor of Greek in Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa.:—

I seem to have found in you a guide in a "mighty maze." Homer has been so long waiting, not for an observer, but for some one to teach us how to observe, a seer to show us how to see. The more I reflect upon your scheme of his cosmology, the more I am struck with its beauty and accuracy; that is, its harmony with the Homeric utterances.

The following does not exactly belong in this place, but, coming from an inspired prophet of God, it seems entitled to a somewhat exceptional treatment. The writer's name indicates a Polish nationality, and his peculiar use of the German language somewhat confirms the supposition that he was not to the manner born. His authoritative announcement of the early restoration at the North Pole of the "curseless" primeval Paradise is well calculated to relieve any undue melancholy into which any of our converts, meditating upon the lost Eden, may chance to fall:—

Königsberg, in Preussen, den 2^ten Mai, 1884.

Werthgeschätzter Herr Professor!—Mit freudigem Staunen lese ich heute in der hiesigen Hartungschen Zeitung folgende Mittheilung: "Die Lage des Paradieses ausfindig zu machen, das ist jetzt das Thema um welches sich das Gespräch

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in den eleganten Salons der geistigen Aristokratie Boston's, des amerikanischen Athens’ dreht, seitdem Professor Dr. Warren der dortigen Universität, in einer langen wissenschaftlichen Abhandlung bewiesen, dass nur allein am Nordpol das Paradies gelegen haben kann. Den Einwand wie ein Mensch am Nordpol bei solcher Kälte Adam heitzen konnte, widerlegt der fromme und gelehrte Mann dadurch, dass es jedenfalls früher dort wärmer gewesen sei. Dr. Warren ist sehr dafür, eine Expedition auszuschicken, um seine auf 'wissenschaftliche Voranssetzungen' gestützte Schlussfolgerungen zu beweisen."

Ergebenst,

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