THE NATURAL GENESIS

NOTES TO OPENING SECTION

[1] [Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, xc. 'Again, in the customs and institutions of schools, academies, colleges, and similar places of resort, set apart as the abodes of learned men, and for the cultivation of erudition, everything is found to be hostile to the progress of knowledge. For lectures and exercises are so disposed, that it does not easily occur to any one to think or meditate on anything out of the customary routine. And if one or two have perchance the boldness to exercise liberty of judgment, they must undertake the task by themselves, for they will gain no advantage from union with others. And if they can endure this, still they will find their industry and liberality no slight impediment in reaching fortune. For the pursuits of men in places of this kind are confined to the writings of certain authors, as if they were prisons; and if any one dissents from them, he is straightway seized upon as a turbulent man, and one desirous of innovations.']

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[4] [Faust, pt. 1, Night. 'Aye marry, what ye call know,
    but then Who to the child can fit the name securely?
    The few who aught thereof have known or learned,
    Who their hearts' fulness foolishly unsealed,
    And to the vulgar herd their thoughts and dreams revealed,
    Men in all times have crucified and burned.' Latham's tr., p. 34 of London, 1900 ed.]

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[10] [The Diegesis, p. 61. 'This admission of the great ecclesiastical historian (than whom there is no greater), will serve us as the Pythagorean theorem—the great geometrical element of all subsequent science, of continual recurrence, of infinite application—ever to be borne in mind, always to be brought in proof—presenting the means of solving every difficulty, and the clue for guiding us to every truth. "Bind it about thy neck, write it upon the tablet of thy heart"—EVERY THING OF CHRISTIANITY IS OF EGYPTIAN ORIGIN.'
Rev. Robert Taylor wrote this book in Oakham jail after being sentenced for blasphemy charges. It is a very important work in the Masseian canon and can be read in full here.]

[11] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 36. 'It is easy to show that this fabular relation borders also upon the verity of physical science. For the Egyptians call the wind Jupiter, with which the parching and fiery property makes war; and though this be not the sun, yet hath it some cognation with the sun.']

[12] [Wis. 6:22. 'What wisdom is, and how she came in to being. I will tell you; I will hide no secret from you. From her first beginnings I will trace out her course, and bring the knowledge of her into the light of day; I will not leave the truth untold.' NEB version.]

[13] [Unable to trace. This quote is cited by other authors who fail to give a ref. See, for example, Our Physical World, by E. R. Downing, p. 1 or p. 16 of Facing the Sphinx by M. Farrington.]

[14] [Mishpatim, 2.'RABBI SHIMON SAID TO THEM, friends, the time has come to reveal some hidden mysteries concerning incarnation.']

[15] [f. 50, 1.]

[16] [Massey's first intention was to publish the second two volumes of A Book of the Beginnings under the same title, but had second thoughts and termed it The Natural Genesis. In essence the second volume set is nothing more than a continuation of the first, whereas Ancient Egypt can be seen as a recap of these four volumes as well as an extension of the main themes proposed by them. The index, which was originally intended to be included at the end of these two volumes, supports this notion as it was meant to include comprehensively all four. The plan was subsequently dropped, unfortunately, with only an index for NG.]

[17] [This can be seen as Massey's way of including himself in the same category as these major theorists, yet undoubtedly he absorbs all their views and takes them further. By the time of his death in 1907 his full exposition, based on their theories, would reach its apotheosis in Ancient Egypt, the culmination of his lifetime's work.]

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[19] [Unable to trace.]

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[21] [Champollion, L'Egypte, vol. 1, pp. 297-8.]

[22] [Pliny, Natural History, bk. 4.16 Actually Philemon is cited in bk. 4.13 of the Loeb Classic Library edition, and verse 95 of the Latin text (Philemon Morimasusam a Cimbris vocari, hoc est mortuum mare, inde usque ad promunturium Rusbeas, ultra deinde Cronium). 'Philemon says that the Cimbrian name for it is Morimarusa (that is, Dead Sea) from the Parapanisus to Cape Rusbeae, and from that point onward the Cronian Sea.' Pliny gives no title by Philemon.]

[23] [Ex.12:37. 'And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children.']

[24] [Here, Massey's summation of his own work and its scant reward or notice is at least self-fulfilling, for his ideas would not readily be accepted until another fifty years after his death. His zeal never flagged, and his work and subsequent exhaustion took him to a grave with the safe knowledge that his will had been fulfilled.]