Originally published in a private edition c. 1900
Gerald Massey, a man of many talents, distinguished
himself as a social reformer, a poet and an Egyptologist. His fame rested mainly
on the six monumental volumes in which he dealt at length on the mythology and
religion of Ancient Egypt, and on his poetry. Although he was a capable
lecturer, the lectures were not widely circulated, and were privately printed in
an obscure volume. It is timely that this valuable collection is once again
presented to Massey's increasing public.
Relatively little is known of Massey's career. His humble
birth at Gamble Wharf, Hertfordshire, England in 1829 held scant promise for the
future. His parents were illiterate--his father was a poorly paid canal boatman.
His own early education was meager. Only occasionally was the young Massey able
to attend the neighboring school, for which he paid one penny a week. From the
age of eight he labored twelve hours a day. At first he found employment in a
silk mill. When it was destroyed by fire, he worked as a straw-plaiter.
Doubtless there were many such jobs until at fifteen he went to London as an
errand boy. Later he was fortunate enough to become a haberdasher's clerk.
It is evident that Massey improved his life at every
opportunity. Not only did his positions become more responsible, but in his
spare time he read literature, and was inspired to write poetry. He even
composed a popular song, which was so well-received that it was exhibited in a
London shop window. In passing the Editor of "The Athenaeum", London's
most distinguished periodical, noticed and bought a copy. The song, "The
People's Advent," caught the Editor's fancy to the extent that the
composer's name--Gerald Massey--remained in his memory.
A year later, his book of poetry readied for publication,
Massey brought it with hope and humility to the Editor of "The
Athenaeum." The Editor, recognizing the author's name as the composer of
"The People's Advent," was predisposed to like the poems before
reading them. He wrote a brilliant, laudatory review of the poetry. The
book-sellers of London, impressed by the review ordered the book with no
hesitation. In one day the first edition was sold out.
Gerald Massey became increasingly interested in
Egyptology. He studied the extensive Egyptian records housed in the British
Museum. He eventually taught himself to decipher the hieroglyphics. Finally
after many years of study he wrote a series of scholarly works on the Religion
and Mythology of Ancient Egypt. In 1881 he published in two volumes "A Book
of the Beginnings," in 1883 "The Natural Genesis" followed, and
finally in 1907 he published in two volumes "Ancient Egypt: The Light of
the World,".
Through those long years of devoted study at the British
Museum, Massey enjoyed the friendship and wise counsel of Dr. Samuel Birch, an
outstanding Egyptologist. He attracted a following of dedicated students, who
later were privileged to assist in his research. Two of his most prominent
co-workers were George St. Clair who authored "Creation Records Discovered
in Egypt," and Dr. Albert Churchward, who wrote "The Origin and
Evolution of the Human Race."
When Massey lectured in America and Canada, he found
himself surrounded with able students. Miss E. Valentia Straiton, author of
"The Celestial Ship of the North," and Dr. Alvin Boyd Kuhn, who wrote
extensively on comparative religion. Dr. Kuhn acknowledged that in Gerald Massey
had been a great inspiration to him. In fact in his posthumous work, "A
Rebirth for Christianity," Dr. Kuhn called attention to the great worth of
Massey's research on Christian origins, as follows:
"With brilliant scholarship and insight he pierced
Egypt's enigmatic scriptology, and documented the provenance of both Old and New
Testament literature from remote Egyptian sources. He forced us to ask how the
four Gospels of the Christian canon could be the biography of any Messianic
personality living in the first Christian century, when he traced their texts
back to Egyptian documents that must have been venerable even in 3500 B.C.
"We are faced with the inescapable realization that
if Jesus actually lived in the flesh in the first century A.D., and if he had
been able to read the documents of old Egypt, he would have been amazed to find
his own biography already substantially written some four or five thousand years
previously. Tertullian, Justin Martyr and
other writers have noted that the leaders of the Christian
movement confessed that many of their doctrines, rites, creeds and symbols were
identical with Egyptian antetypes. The late outstanding American Egyptologist,
James H. Breasted, found evidence of such similarities between the Old Testament
book, Proverbs, and addresses to the Pharaoh of Egypt dating as far back as 3500
B.C. All this confirms Massey's conclusions." (pp. 39-40)
Gerald Massey so impressed the novelist, George Eliot,
that she made him the hero of one of her famous romances. Thus Massey became
immortalized in literature as "Felix Holt the Radical."
Among Massey's American friends and admirers was a
prominent New York Journalist and publisher, D. M. Bernett. In the second
edition of his "The World's Sages, Thinkers and Reformers" on page
967, Bernett says,
"Gerald Massey is a warm-hearted, genial man, and as
a companion and friend he has few superiors. His interests and incentives are
decidedly in the direction of Science and Rationalism. He has many years been
freed from the binding and blinding theological creeds and obligations. He
regards priestcraft as one of the great evils which mankind for thousands of
years have been compelled to endure and support; and regards it as one of the
most important works that men of the present time can engage in to demolish the
idols of the past dark ages; to liberate the mind from the dwarfing and
blighting effect of pagan and Christian mythology and to dispense with the
officious and expensive services of a designing, useless, aristocratic and wily
priesthood. He most desires to see the human race advance in knowledge and truth
and mental freedom, which science and philosophy imparts to the diligent
investigator. He believes ignorance to be the Devil, Science the Savior of the
world."
For those who finish the reading of these lectures and
desire a further acquaintance with the works of Gerald Massey, there are his
greater works beginning with "Ancient Egypt, the Light of the World."