Error's chains — Background and Themes

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In Category - Theology

Authors: Dobbins, Frank S. (Frank Stockton), 1855-1916, Hall, Isaac H. (Isaac Hollister), 1837-1896 [Contributor], Williams, S. Wells (Samuel Wells), 1812-1884 [Contributor] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2025 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Mythology; Religions; Idols and images -- Worship Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 165,008

Reading time 718 min

Text sections 46

This digital edition of Error's chains — Background and Themes is described by source-level measurements including 165,008 words, 11 hr 58 min estimated reading time, and 46 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 20.3 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Mythology,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #76838

An 1883 comparative survey of global religious errors, from creation to modern times, using vivid ethnographic anecdotes and engravings to illustrate idolatry and mythology across cultures.

Editorial Edition Score 4.9/5

★★★★★ ★★★★★

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Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg76838

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THE WORLD’S FIRST WORSHIP.

Testimony of an old record and of language--Another witness: comparative religion--The story of the master thief--The story of Rhampsinitos--The story of the poor mason--The story of the shifty lad--Exodus of the nations, 33

WHENCE CAME THE MANY GODS AND IDOLS?

Sources of information--The transition--The first hymns and prayers--Where did idol-worship come from, 47

SACRED AND HEATHEN TRADITIONS.

Traditions of Creation--Traditions of the Deluge--The Chaldean story--The Hindu tradition--The Chinese tradition--The Mexican legend--The Fiji-Islander’s tradition--American Indian traditions--The Greek story--Chaldean story of the Tower of Babel--What has the Bible to say about idolatry? 63

THE SUBJECT IN A NUTSHELL.

Methods of grouping religions--Dead religions and living religions--Original religions and reformed religions--Dead religions--Living worships--The proposed treatment--A concise view--Parseeism--African religion--Western Europe--The Southern migration--Buddhism--China’s religions--Shintoism in Japan--Mohammedanism--Christianity’s conquests, 77

THE LAND OF THE SPHINX.

Hidden history--The hieroglyphics--Some Egyptian gods--Animal worship--Mummies--The celebrated book of the dead--Egyptian worship, 93

The great Chaldean historian--Ruined monuments--A library of brick books--Manners and customs--The religion of Assyria--The supreme god, Ilu--The Assyrian triad--The gods of the planets--The great goddess Ishtar--The Genii of Assyria--Worship of the gods at Babylon, 119

The plagues and Egyptian idolatry--The golden calf--Baal-worship, 138

Origin of the world and of the gods--The generations of the gods--Gods of the Grecians--Specimen stories from Greek mythology--Hermes and Apollo--The Lotus-eaters and the Cyclops--Hercules’ twelve tasks--The Phidian Jupiter--Grecian temples and worship of Paul’s day--The city crowded with idols--Diana of the Ephesians, 150

The Etruscan religion--The Sabellian religion--The gods of the Romans--Father Jove--The Matron goddess--The goddess of schools--The goddess of the hearth--Ceres and Liber--The gods of beginnings--Rome’s lesser gods--The Roman empire, 173

Ancient Britain--The Druids--Wonderful resemblance--Worship of the Druids--Temple of the Hanging Stones--Human sacrifices--The destruction of Druidism--Who first brought Christianity to Britain--Paganism of the Saxons--Saxon gods--Saxon sacrifices--Fairy-lore of Western Europe--An Elfin Story--The penitent Nis--Nixes--The Peasant and the Waterman--The wonderful little pouch--Christianizing the Saxons, 185

Sketch of Brahminism--The gods of Hinduism--Story of the Sages’ search--Can the gods die?--Sects of Hinduism--Principles of Hinduism--Human beings killed in sacrifice--How Hinduism regards woman, 210

HINDU TEMPLES, IDOLS AND WORSHIP.

Idols and temples of Juggernaut--Kali, the Goddess of Blood--Temple Decorations--Benares--The sacred city of the Sikhs--Cave-temples of Elephanta and Gwalior--Ganesha, God of Wisdom--Pagodas--Hindu washings for sin--Hindu holy men, devotees and fakirs, 232

HINDU SACRED BOOKS, FAIRY STORIES AND FIRESIDE TALES.

The Vedic hymns--The law-book of Manu--Degradation of women according to Manu’s laws--The burning of widows commanded by Manu--The god Vishnu made man--A Sanskrit story-book--The story of the terrible bell--The story of the lion and the old hare--The story of the Brahmin and the pans--The story of the recluse and the mouse, 288

The sacred books of Japan--Japanese story of creation--The emperors descended from the gods--The sun-goddess enticed from the cave--Shinto worship, 305

POPULAR GODS AND SHRINES OF SHINTOISM.

The seven household gods--The sacred mountain--Shinto temples and gate-ways--The sacred shrines of Ise, 321

African belief in a god or gods--Praying for rain--The Hottentots’ god, Gounja-Gounja--The Bushmen’s god--Zulu tradition of the origin of men--Good and bad spirits--The spirit in the insect--Fetich worship--A horrible fetich--Stanley and the Africans’ fear of fetich--Witchcraft, 341

THE “GREAT SPIRIT” OF AMERICA.

The Indians of North America--The Great Spirit--Worship of ancestors--Indian legends--The “Song of Hiawatha”--Indian allegory of winter and spring--Alaskans’ worship of evil spirits--Indian sun-worship--Amazon sun-worship--The Araucanians--Patagonia--The Aztecs--Ancient Aztec idol--The Incas, 362

IDOLATRY IN OCEANICA.

The depraved condition of the Papuans--The pagan Polynesians--Traditionary origin of human priesthood--Polynesian notion of the sun and moon--The fire-god’s song, 387

THE KARENS AND THEIR TRADITIONS.

The Karens not idolaters--Worship of _Yuah_--A singular tradition--The dog who ate the book--Funeral services--Mrs. Vinton’s letter, 401

Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ormazd--Zoroaster’s worship of one God--Ormazd and Ahriman--Finding of the Zend-Avesta--The Parsee Bible--Parsee worship, 407

THE CHINESE PHILOSOPHER, LAO-TSZE.

Chinese contrarieties and language--The three Chinese religions--The old boy--The talisman of long life--The visit of Confucius to Lao-Tsze--The voyage in search of the talisman of long life, 416

THE TAOIST SACRED BOOKS AND GODS.

The book of rewards and punishments--Some selections from the book of rewards and punishments--The book of secret blessings--The gods of the Taoists--The god of letters--Charms--Kwan-te, God of War--Tsai-shin, the God of Riches--Taoist superstitions, 428

CONFUCIUS AND THE CLASSICS.

The background of the picture--The story of the sage’s life--Teachings and writings of the Chinese sage--The wisdom of the sage, 445

CONFUCIAN TEMPLES AND WORSHIP.

The worship of Shang-te, at Peking--Temple of Confucius--Examinations in the sacred books--Anecdotes of students--How Mencius’s mother incited her son to study--How a tired student was led back to his studies--The little sage who hid fire to light his lamp--An example of a studious ancestor--The student with a round stick for a pillow, 460

HOME-LIFE UNDER CONFUCIANISM.

Ceremony of turning the bridge-ladder--Worship of ancestors at a wedding--Mother, Goddess of Children--Teaching a child to worship idols--The story of Ma-chu, Goddess of the Sailors, 478

BUDDHA, THE “LIGHT OF ASIA.”

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Frank S. Dobbins opens Error’s Chains with a personal memory: as a child, he was fascinated by pictures of idols and tales of heathen worship, much like the young missionary Alexander Duff. This anecdote frames the book as a labor of interest, not dry scholarship. The preface declares that “religion in some form is interwoven with the entire fabric of human history,” setting a tone of earnest, Victorian-era comparative religion. Dobbins promises to cover ground no single book then occupied, spanning from creation to the present, across national, social, and religious errors. The work is heavily illustrated and credited to contributors with deep Asian experience—S. Wells Williams and Isaac Hall—lending authority to its global scope.

A Child’s-Eye View of Idolatry

The preface reveals Dobbins’s method: he aims to replicate the “exhaustless interest” he felt as a boy looking at strange pictures. He recounts how Dr. Alexander Duff’s father showed him idol images on Sabbath afternoons, a practice that spurred Duff’s missionary career. This personal hook suggests the book is designed for a general reader, not a specialist. The opening frames error as a visual and narrative spectacle—something to be looked at and wondered over before being analyzed. Dobbins admits no single book covered this ground, positioning his as a pioneering compendium. The tone is confident, even moralistic, but grounded in the premise that understanding false worship is inherently absorbing.

Polynesian Oracles and the Priest’s Power

In the Oceanica section, Dobbins describes how priests delivered oracles after consuming intoxicating piper mythisticum and throwing themselves into a frenzy. Responses were “intelligible only to the initiated,” and a priest could declare a victim’s death as divine will. The text notes that “the best kinds of food were sacred to the priests and chiefs,” implying institutional manipulation. This excerpt shows Dobbins’s reliance on ethnographic detail—specific rituals, local terms, and social critique. He also recounts a Tongan myth about the sun and moon originating from a cut child, with the moon’s paleness explained by blood drainage. Such myths are presented as curious errors, but the author does not dismiss them as mere nonsense; he records them with a straight-faced precision that lets the strangeness speak for itself.

Māni’s Quest for Cooked Food

A long narrative follows the demigod Māni, who discovers cooked food in his mother’s basket and descends to the nether-world to learn the secret of fire. The text includes a chanted spell—“Buataranga, descend thou boldly through this chasm”—and Māni’s bargaining with the god Tane for a prized red pigeon named Akaotu, or “Fearless.” This myth is told as a continuous story, with dialogue and suspense. Dobbins treats it as a “peculiar tradition,” not as allegory or moral lesson. The inclusion of such a detailed tale suggests the book’s appeal lies in narrative as much as argument. Readers encounter Polynesian cosmology through a plot: a hero’s journey, a magical rock, and a stolen secret. The excerpt breaks off before the resolution, leaving the fire-secret unrevealed—a reminder that the excerpts are partial, and the full work likely contains many such embedded stories.

Structure and Scope: A Comparative Catalog

The book’s subtitle promises a “comparative history” from creation to the present, covering national, social, and religious errors. The excerpts show a pattern: each culture is introduced with a general observation (e.g., “every nation has its God”), followed by specific rituals, myths, and criticisms. Dobbins moves from Polynesia to other regions (not shown in excerpts) but the method appears consistent. The contributors—Williams, a China expert, and Hall, an Orientalist—suggest the work leans heavily on Asian and Pacific examples. The 39th edition status implies popularity. Readers should expect a catalog-like structure: short chapters or sections on each culture, with illustrations and moral commentary. The book is not a continuous argument but a series of exhibits, each meant to demonstrate how error is forged and, presumably, how it might be broken.

Error’s Chains rewards a reader who treats it as a period piece of comparative religion, not a modern academic study. The excerpts show Dobbins as a collector of curiosities—myths, rituals, and priestly deceptions—presented with Victorian moral certainty but genuine ethnographic interest. Pay attention to the illustrations (not included here) and the footnotes or credits, which may reveal the sources behind the anecdotes. The book’s structure is episodic; you can dip into any culture’s section without needing the whole. The preface’s personal tone suggests the author hoped to inspire the same wonder he felt as a child—and perhaps a similar missionary impulse.

Flicking through Error's Chains felt like wandering a vast, strange museum of human belief, each engraved idol a quiet witness to our restless seeking. It left a particular ache, a curiosity about the faiths it merely brushed past. That gentle wonder found a softer echo in the unhurried pages of Curiosities of Superstition, and Sketches of Some Unrevealed Religions — Story, Setting & Ideas, where forgotten practices are treated not as errors, but as intimate, fragile stories left to linger in the lamplight.