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An Intro ducti on to
Sonar Systems
Engineering
An Introduction to
Sonar Systems
Engineering
Lawrence J. Ziomek
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Naval Postgraduate School
Monterey, California
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To my mother
LOTTIE,
my wife
VIRGINIA
for her many years of support and patience,
my daughters
NICOLE and KIRSTEN,
my son-in-law
CRAIG,
Preface xiii
Bibliography 667
Index 671
Preface
One of the major challenges in the teaching and study of Sonar Systems
Engineering is that it is an interdisciplinary field. It requires a working knowledge
of topics from electrical engineering (e.g., aperture theory, array theory, digital
signal processing, communication theory, random processes, and detection
theory), oceanography (e.g., the ocean environment), and physics (e.g.,
transducers and underwater acoustic wave propagation). Another challenge is that
students and/or practicing engineers and scientists who take a course in Sonar
Systems Engineering, or who want to do self-study, typically have diverse
undergraduate degrees.
The goal of my textbook is to discuss those important topics that are fundamental
to the understanding of modern day Sonar Systems Engineering so that students
and practicing engineers and scientists with diverse academic backgrounds can
analyze and design both passive and active sonar systems, do basic signal design
for active sonar systems, and understand the basics of underwater acoustic
communication signals. My belief is that if a student has a good understanding of
the fundamentals, then he can analyze and design most sonar systems. In order to
obtain a good understanding of the fundamentals, I believe that mathematical
rigor is important, so that students can clearly see the development of important
results and where assumptions and approximations are made. Although the book
is mathematically rigorous, it is not theory for theory’s sake. Many useful,
practical design and analysis equations for both passive and active sonar systems
are derived from first principles that can be evaluated by using a hand-held
(pocket) calculator.
The intended audiences are graduate students at universities, for example, majors
in electrical engineering, ocean engineering, and physics; and practicing engineers
and scientists at private defense (aerospace) companies, Navy laboratories, and
xiii
xiv Preface
university laboratories. The material in the book is classroom tested and distance
learning tested. Students at the Naval Postgraduate School who take my course in
Sonar Systems Engineering have diverse undergraduate degrees, as well as the
distance learning students that I have taught. Ideal student prerequisites would
include introductory courses in Signals and Systems (Fourier series and
transforms, principles of linear, time-invariant systems, discrete Fourier
transform), communication theory, random processes, and acoustics.
Starting with an exact solution of a linear wave equation, and using transmit and
receive coupling equations, general definitions of the near-field and far-field
beam patterns (directivity functions) of transmit and receive volume apertures are
derived in Chapter 1. The near-field and far-field beam patterns of a volume
aperture are shown to be three-dimensional spatial Fresnel and Fourier
transforms, respectively. Spatial frequencies and direction cosines in the X, Y, and
Z directions are introduced. Equations that define both the Fresnel and Fraunhofer
regions of a volume aperture are derived, along with the range to the near-
field/far-field boundary. These equations are also applicable for linear and planar
apertures; and linear, planar, and volume arrays. The reason Chapter 1 is devoted
to volume apertures is because linear and planar apertures; and linear, planar, and
volume arrays are just special cases of a volume aperture. As a consequence, the
general results obtained in Chapter 1 can be used throughout the entire book.
aperture focusing in the Fresnel region of linear and planar apertures. Aperture
focusing is creating a far-field beam pattern at a near-field range from an aperture.
The material covered in Chapters 2 and 3 also provides the theoretical background
necessary for the study of linear and planar arrays.
Chapter 4 starts with the derivation of the equation for the directivity of a transmit
volume aperture, where the aperture is characterized by its far-field beam pattern.
The equation for the directivity and, hence, directivity index (the decibel
equivalent of directivity) of a volume aperture is also applicable to linear and
planar apertures, single electroacoustic transducers (e.g., a continuous line source,
rectangular piston, or circular piston), and linear, planar, and volume arrays of
electroacoustic transducers, since they are just special cases of a volume aperture.
All that is needed is the far-field beam pattern of the aperture. Chapter 4 finishes
with the derivation of the equation for the source level of a transmit volume
aperture as a function of the time-average acoustic power radiated by the aperture
and the directivity index of the aperture.
Using the fundamentals of linear and planar aperture theory discussed in Chapters
2 and 3, respectively, Chapter 5 discusses the design and analysis of a side-
looking sonar, also known as a side-scan sonar. Side-looking sonars are active
sonar systems capable of producing high resolution underwater images of large
areas on the ocean bottom. Both deep water and shallow water problems are
considered.
Chapters 6 and 7 are devoted to linear arrays. Equations for the far-field and near-
field beam patterns of linear arrays are derived in Chapter 6. With the advent of
very long towed arrays, near-field considerations are very important. Common
amplitude weights, including Dolph-Chebyshev amplitude weights, are discussed
in detail. Implementing complex weights (amplitude and phase weights) using
digital beamforming (FFT beamforming) is covered in both Chapters 6 and 7. The
theory of phased arrays, that is, using phase weights for beam steering and/or
array focusing is discussed. The relationship between the far-field beam pattern of
a linear array and the one-dimensional spatial discrete Fourier transform is
derived. Grating lobes are discussed. Chapter 7 provides a detailed discussion of
array gain and FFT beamforming for linear arrays.
Chapter 8 is devoted to planar arrays. Equations for the far-field and near-field
beam patterns of planar arrays are derived. Implementing complex weights
(amplitude and phase weights) using digital beamforming (FFT beamforming) is
discussed. The theory of phased arrays, that is, using phase weights for beam
steering and/or array focusing is covered. The relationship between the far-field
beam pattern of a planar array and the two-dimensional spatial discrete Fourier
transform is derived. Two very important, real-world planar arrays that are in use
xvi Preface
today – a single triplet and a twin-line planar array – are discussed in detail. A
single triplet is a circular array composed of three elements whose far-field beam
pattern is in the shape of a cardioid. A twin-line planar array provides a solution
to the port/starboard (left/right) ambiguity problem associated with linear towed
arrays. A detailed discussion of FFT beamforming for planar arrays is provided.
Chapter 9 is devoted to volume arrays. Equations for the far-field beam patterns
of a cylindrical and spherical array of omnidirectional point-elements are derived.
The theory of phased arrays, that is, using phase weights for beam steering are
discussed. Using the results for a single triplet discussed in Chapter 8, a linear
array of triplets is discussed in detail. A linear array of triplets is a very important,
real-world volume array that is in use today because it also provides a solution to
the port/starboard (left/right) ambiguity problem associated with linear towed
arrays. A linear array of triplets can be thought of as a cylindrical array that is
lying on its side.
Chapter 10 covers the important topic of bistatic scattering with fixed and moving
platforms. The scattering function and target strength of a target (scatterer) are
discussed, along with different scattering cross-sections such as differential, total,
and bistatic. Both scattered and direct acoustic paths are analyzed. Sonar
equations and broadband solutions for both the scattered and direct acoustic paths
are derived. A statistical model of the scattering function is developed. For the
case of moving platforms, exact equations for the time delay, time-
compression/time-expansion factor, and Doppler shift at a receiver for both the
scattered and direct acoustic paths are derived.
probabilities of false alarm and detection, and the decision threshold are derived.
Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves are discussed.
Lawrence J. Ziomek
Carmel, California
Chapter 1
electroacoustic transducer material and that the enclosed volume V is empty. This
physical situation is known as a volume aperture. A real-world example of a
volume aperture is a spherical array of electroacoustic transducers, that is, an
array of electroacoustic transducers lying on the surface of a hollow sphere.
Imagine applying an input electrical signal x(t, rT ) to the transmit aperture at time
t and location rT = (x T , yT , z T ) , where rT is the position vector to a point on the
surface of the transmit aperture. Therefore, x(t, rT ) is shorthand notation for
x(t, x T , yT , z T ) . Assume that x(t, rT ) is a voltage signal with units of volts ( V ). If
we treat the infinitesimal surface area element dS of the transmit aperture located
at rT as a linear, time-invariant filter with impulse response αT (t, rT ) with units
( )
of sec−1 V sec , then the output acoustic signal from the transmit aperture
xM (t, rT ) with units of sec−1 , which is also the input acoustic signal to the fluid
medium, can be expressed as a time-domain convolution integral as follows:
1.1 Coupling Transmitted and Received Electrical Signals to the Fluid Medium 3
∞
xM (t, rT ) = ∫ x(τ, rT )αT (t − τ, rT )dτ , (1.1-1)
−∞
or
xM (t, rT ) = x(t, rT ) ∗αT (t, rT ) , (1.1-2)
t
where the asterisk denotes convolution with respect to time t . The input acoustic
signal to the fluid medium xM (t, rT ) is also known as the source distribution. It
represents the volume flow rate (source strength in cubic meters per second) per
unit volume of fluid at time t and location rT .
Taking the Fourier transform of (1.1-2) with respect to t yields
XM ( f, rT ) = X( f, rT ) AT ( f, rT ), (1.1-3)
where
{ }
∞
XM ( f, rT ) = Ft xM (t, rT ) = ∫ xM (t, rT )exp(− j2π ft)dt (1.1-4)
−∞
is the complex frequency spectrum of the input acoustic signal to the fluid
medium (source distribution) at location rT of the transmit aperture with units of
sec−1 Hz ,
{ }
∞
X( f, rT ) = Ft x(t, rT ) = ∫ x(t, rT )exp(− j2π ft)dt (1.1-5)
−∞
{ }
∞
AT ( f, rT ) = Ft αT (t, rT ) = ∫ αT (t, rT )exp(− j2π ft)dt (1.1-6)
−∞
{ }
∞
xM (t, rT ) = Ff−1 XM ( f, rT ) = ∫ XM ( f, rT ) exp(+ j2π ft)df , (1.1-7)
−∞
∞
xM (t, rT ) = ∫ X( f, rT ) AT ( f, rT ) exp(+ j2π ft)df (1.1-8)
−∞
4 1 Complex Aperture Theory – Volume Apertures – General Results
∞
y(t, rR ) = ∫ yM (τ, rR )α R(t − τ, rR )dτ , (1.1-9)
−∞
or
y(t, rR ) = yM (t, rR ) ∗α R(t, rR ) , (1.1-10)
t
where rR is the position vector to a point on the surface of the receive aperture;
yM (t, rR ) , with units of m 2 sec , is the output acoustic signal (velocity potential)
from the fluid medium, which is also the input acoustic signal to the receive
aperture (i.e., it is the acoustic field incident upon the receive aperture) at time t
and location rR ; and α R(t, rR ) , with units of (( V ( m 2
sec )) m3 ) sec , is the
impulse response of the infinitesimal surface area element dS of the receive
aperture located at rR , which is treated as a linear, time-invariant filter. Note that
y(t, rR ) is shorthand notation for y(t, xR, yR, zR ) .
Taking the Fourier transform of (1.1-10) with respect to t yields
∞
YM (η, rR ) = Ft { yM (t, rR )} = ∫ yM (t, rR )exp(− j2πηt)dt (1.1-13)
−∞
is the complex frequency spectrum of the acoustic field incident upon the receive
( )
aperture at location rR with units of m 2 sec Hz , and
∞
AR(η, rR ) = Ft {α R(t, rR )} = ∫ α R(t, rR )exp(− j2πηt)dt (1.1-14)
−∞
example, if there is any relative motion between transmit and receive apertures,
the received frequencies will not be equal to the transmitted frequencies because
of Doppler shift and bandwidth compression or expansion. Taking the inverse
Fourier transform of (1.1-11) with respect to η yields
∞
y(t, rR ) = ∫ YM (η, rR ) AR(η, rR )exp(+ j2πηt) dη (1.1-15)
−∞
1 ∂2
∇ ϕ (t, r) − 2 2 ϕ (t, r) = xM (t, r)
2
(1.2-1)
c ∂t
( )
∫
1 xM t − ⎡⎣ r − r0 c ⎤⎦ , r0
ϕ (t, r) = − dV0 , (1.2-2)
4π r − r0
V0
where ϕ (t, r) is the scalar velocity potential in squared meters per second, c is
the constant speed of sound in the fluid medium in meters per second, and
xM (t, r) is the source distribution in inverse seconds. The wave equation given by
(1.2-1) is referred to as being inhomogeneous because the right-hand side is
nonzero. If the transmit coupling equation for the source distribution given by
(1.1-8) is substituted into (1.2-2), then
( )
∞
ϕ (t, r) = ∫ ∫ X( f, r0 ) AT ( f, r0 ) g f r r0 dV0 exp(+ j2π ft)df (1.2-3)
−∞ V0
1.2 The Near-Field Beam Pattern of a Volume Aperture 7
where
(
g f r r0 −)
(
exp − jk r − r0 ) (1.2-4)
4π r − r0
k = 2π f c = 2π λ (1.2-5)
r0 = x 0 x̂ + y0 ŷ + z 0 ẑ (1.2-7)
is the position vector to a source point (see Fig. 1.2-1). The Green’s function
given by (1.2-4) is the complex frequency response of an unbounded, ideal
8 1 Complex Aperture Theory – Volume Apertures – General Results
∂ ∂
p(t, r) = − ρ0(r) ϕ (t, r) = − ρ0 ϕ (t, r) , (1.2-8)
∂t ∂t
r − r0 = (r − r0 )i(r − r0 ) , (1.2-11)
it can be shown that
r − r0 = r 1 + b , (1.2-12)
1.2 The Near-Field Beam Pattern of a Volume Aperture 9
r = r = x 2 + y2 + z 2 (1.2-15)
r̂ = u x̂ + v ŷ + w ẑ (1.2-16)
r = r r̂ , (1.2-17)
where
u = cos α = sin θ cosψ , (1.2-18)
u 2 + v2 + w 2 = 1 . (1.2-21)
⎛ b b2 ⎞
r − r0 = r 1 + b ≈ r ⎜ 1 + − +⎟ , b <1 (1.2-22)
⎝ 2 8 ⎠
10 1 Complex Aperture Theory – Volume Apertures – General Results
Figure 1.2-2 Unit vector r̂ and spherical angles θ and ψ . Note that angle ψ is
measured in a counter-clockwise direction.
⎧r
⎪0
r>⎨
( )
1 + cos2φ + cos φ , 0°≤ φ ≤ 90°
( 1 + cos φ − cos φ ) ,
(1.2-23)
⎪r0 2
90°≤ φ ≤ 180°
⎩
The question that I find has been most frequently put to me since
my return home is—What effect travel in the East has on belief?
What the effect may be in any case will, of course, depend on
what were the ingredients and character of the belief. If, for instance,
a traveller makes the discovery that old Egypt was far grander, far
more civilized, and far more earnest than the mention of it in the
Hebrew Scriptures had led him to suppose, he will receive a shock;
or if a man finds the agricultural capabilities of the greater part of
Syria utterly unadapted to English methods of farming, and has no
idea of other methods; and if, furthermore, he is ignorant of the ways
in which commerce can maintain a large population anywhere, he
will receive another shock. We can imagine that such persons will
ever afterwards affirm that the effects are bad. They were bad in
their own minds, and they cannot see how they can be good in any
other mind.
We will take these two instances first. Suppose a different kind of
traveller, one who had previously arrived at some not altogether
inadequate conceptions of the mind, and of the greatness of old
Egypt. He had also observed the fact that these things are not dwelt
on in the Hebrew Scriptures, and had formed some opinion as to the
cause of the omission. Then he will receive no shock from what he
sees in the monuments of the greatness of Egypt, and of the
evidently high moral aims of its religion. Suppose, again, that he had
quite understood that he should not see the same kind of agriculture
in Syria as in Suffolk; and that when he was among the hills he had
found, often to a greater extent than he had expected, that formerly
every rood of ground had been turned to account; it is true, in a very
un-English manner, but still in a manner well adapted to the locality;
that terraces had been formed wherever terraces could be placed;
that corn, figs, olives, vines had been grown on these terraces (on
some hills the actual summit is still a vineyard), and that, where the
ground was not suitable for terracing, it had been depastured by
flocks and herds; and that there is evidence that many hills must
have been clothed from the bottom to the top with olives. And
suppose also that he was quite aware that populous cities could
have been maintained by trade and commerce in Judæa just as
easily, to say the least, as were Palmyra and Petra in the wilderness.
Then he will receive no shock from the un-English agricultural
aspects of Syria. Instead of any disagreeable sensation of that kind,
he will see in the present desolation of the country interesting and
instructive evidence of a change in the channels of commerce, and a
demonstration of the sad fact that where the Turk sets his foot,
although he is a very good fellow, grass will not grow.
But to go on with the discoveries that cause shocks. With many
Jerusalem is the great stumbling-block. If, however, we can imagine
a traveller visiting the Holy City with sufficient historical knowledge to
enable him to recall in a rough way the city of David and of Solomon,
we may be quite certain that he will, as far as that part of the subject
goes, receive no shock from the modern city. The same, too, I
believe, may be said, to a very great extent, even of the city of
Herod. One who can rightly imagine what that city was externally will
not, I think, be disappointed at the sight of modern Jerusalem. I am
not now speaking of the Greek traders, the Roman soldiers, the
Pharisees, and Sadducees, who might have been seen in the
streets, but of the city itself. It must be seen from the Mount of
Olives, and I submit that the grand Mosk of Omar, as beheld from
that point, is a far more imposing structure, architecturally, than the
temple of Herod was likely to have been, which, when seen from a
distance, being in the Greek style of architecture, was, probably, too
much wanting in height to produce any very great effect. The Mosk
combines great height with variety of form, for there are the curves of
the dome as well as the perpendicular lines of the walls and great
windows. The dwelling-houses, too, of the modern city must, with
their domed stone roofs be more imposing than those of the old city.
The cupolas and towers of the churches, and the minarets of the
mosks are additional features. The walls also of the modern city are
lofty, massive, and of an excellent colour; and I can hardly think that
those of old Jerusalem could have added more to the scene. Herod’s
Palace, and the greater extent of his city are probably the only
particulars in which what has passed away was superior to what is
seen now. As looked at from the mount of Olives this day, the city
does not appear to contain a single mean building. History, then, will
again save the traveller from receiving a shock at the sight of the
outward appearance of Jerusalem; or if it must be felt, will much
mitigate its force.
The traveller, however, might be one who had never rambled so
far as the field of history, and was only expecting to find in the
Christians of Jerusalem, that is, in the specimens of the Greek and
Latin communions there, living embodiments of the Sermon on the
Mount; but instead of this, finds littlenesses, frauds, formalism,
animosities, dirt. Of course, he receives a shock; and this is,
perhaps, the commonest shock of all. But the fault was in himself: he
ought to have known better than to have allowed himself to indulge
in such unlikely anticipations.
Every one, then, of these shocks was unnecessary and avoidable.
And now let us look at another order of suppositions. Suppose the
traveller is desirous of understanding something about the efforts
that have been made to interpret, and to shape man’s moral and
spiritual nature under a great, and, on the whole, progressive variety
of circumstances, out of which has arisen, from time to time, a
necessity for enlarging and recasting former conclusions, so as to
include the results of the new light, and to adapt ideas and practices
to new circumstances: then what he sees of the East, and of its
people, will help him mightily in understanding what he wishes to
understand. We are supposing that he has limited his expectations
to certain clearly-defined objects, such, for instance, as the
observation of what now can be seen, that will throw light on the
history of the people, whose record is in the Sacred volume, on what
kind of people they were, and how it came to pass that they became
what they were; and on what it was in the natural order that made
their minds the seed-bed for the ideas, with which, through their
Scriptures, we are all more or less familiar; and on what there was in
the people that made the moral element more prominent and active
in their civilization than in that of Greece and Rome: that is to say, if
his objects are strictly limited to what can be investigated and
understood by what one sees in the East, because it is the
investigation and understanding of what may be seen in the Eastern
man, and in Eastern nature; then I think that travel in Egypt and
Syria will not cause any shocks or disappointments. On the contrary,
I think the traveller will feel, on his return home, that he has brought
back with him some light, and some food for thought, he could not
have obtained elsewhere.
As to myself: for of course I can only give my own experience; and
equally, of course, it is only that that can be of value, should it
happen to possess any, in what I may have to say on this question: I
now feel, as I read the sacred page, that I understand it in a way I
never did before. It is not merely that I can, sometimes, fit the scene
to the transactions—that is something; but that, which is more, I am
better able to fit the people to the thoughts, and even to understand
the thoughts themselves. The interest, therefore, and possibly the
utility, too, of what I read is increased for me. I have seen the greater
simplicity of mind of these oriental people. I have seen that the moral
element in them is stronger, either relatively to their intellect, or
absolutely in itself—I know not which—and obtains more dominion
over them than over our beef-eating, beer-drinking, and indoor-living
people; that the idea of God is more present to them than to us, and
has a more constant, and sometimes a deeper, power over them.
Observations of this kind enable one to see and feel more clearly
what was in the minds and hearts of the old Orientals. This is true of
the whole of Scripture, from the first page to the last; but in an
especial manner is it true of the Psalms and of the Gospels. Before I
visited the East I saw their meaning through the, to a certain extent,
false medium of modern English thought. Elements of feeling and
meaning, which before were unobserved and unknown, now stand
out clear and distinct. I seem to be conscious of and to understand,
in a manner that would have been impossible before, the depth and
the exaltation of feeling of the Psalms, and their wonderful didactic
beauty, the result, clearly, of the feelings that prompted them, rather
than of the amount and variety of knowledge they deal with. The
simplicity, the single-mindedness, the self-forgetting heartiness of the
morality of the Gospel, also, I think, gains much from the same
cause. I think, too, that I understand now, better than I did before, the
fierce tone in which the Prophets denounced existing wrongs, and
their unfaltering confidence in a better future.
And as it is in great matters and on the whole, so is it in small
particulars. For instance, I heard a tall bony half-grey Syrian Arab, in
whose mind I had but little doubt that the thought of God was ever
present, cursing the God of the Christians. It had never crossed his
mind that the God of the Christians was the same as the God of the
Mahomedans. Here was the persistence to our own day of the old
exclusive idea.
A poor native Christian at Jerusalem told me that he believed the
holy places were not known now, because, in these days, men were
not worthy of such blessed knowledge. The old idea again of the
superior holiness of past times. And so one might go on with a
multitude of similar instances.
I will here give a tangible and distinct example of the change in
one’s way of looking at things, and of the consequent change in
feeling, which travel in the East actually brought about in one’s mind,
naturally and without any effort, just by allowing the trains of thought
that spontaneously arose to take their own courses, and, in
combination with pre-existing material, to work themselves out to
their own conclusions.
Formerly I never read the account of the deception Jacob
practised on his father at the instigation of his mother, and at the
expense of his brother; or the imprecations of the 109th Psalm; or
the account of the way in which David, for the purpose of appeasing
God (Who was supposed to be terribly afflicting an innocent people
for the mistaken zeal on His behalf of a deceased king), gave up
seven innocent men, sons and grandsons of Saul, to be hanged by
those whom Saul had sought to injure; without wishing, as I believe
almost everybody does, every time he hears these passages read,
that, by some process of beneficent magic, they could be made to
vanish from the Sacred Volume, and be heard of and remembered
no more for ever. But now they appear to me in quite a different light,
and I regard them with quite different sentiments. Now I am very far
indeed from wishing that they could be made to vanish away. I have
been among people who are, at this moment, thinking, feeling, and
acting precisely in the way described in those passages; and so I
have come to regard them as containing genuine, primitive, historical
phases of morality and religion, and as giving to the record, and just
for this very reason, no small part of its value. This primitive morality,
which has been kept alive all along, or to which men have again
reverted, in the East, belongs to the stage in which subtilty, although
it may, as in the instance before us, palpably mean deception, has
not yet been distinguished from wisdom; when men think they are
serving God by being ready to inflict any and every form of suffering,
and even, if it were possible, annihilation itself, on the man who
rejects, or who does not support, their ideas of morality and religion;
and when the current conception of responsibility is made to include
the family and descendants of the evil-doer. These very
misconceptions and aberrations are in conformity to the existing
sentiments and daily practice of the modern Oriental. With him
deception is a perfectly legitimate means for obtaining his ends; nor,
in his way of thinking, is any infliction too severe for misbelievers and
blasphemers of the Faith; and in the custom of blood-feuds the
innocent descendants of the man who shed blood are answerable
for the misdeed of their forefather. These, then, and similar mistakes,
the contemplation of which is so painful to us, were honestly made,
and were even consequences of deliberate and careful efforts to act
up to moral ideas under the conditions and in conformity with the
knowledge of the times.
I have thus come to see that morality and religion,—and this
includes my own morality and religion—are, in no sense, an arbitrary
creation, but a world-old growth. Thousands of years ago they were
forming themselves, in some stages of their growth, on the hill of
Zion, as they had been previously in earlier stages on the banks of
the Nile, and as they did subsequently in the grove of the Academy,
on the seven hills of Rome, and in the forests of Germany. This has
been brought home to me by actual acquaintance with people whose
morality and religion are different from my own—the difference very
much consisting in the fact that they are still in the early stage to
which the ideas in the passages referred to belong. To associate and
to deal with people who are mentally in the state, which the old
historic peoples were in, is to have the old history translated for you
into a language you can understand. What I now find in myself was
once, in its earlier days, just what I find described in those passages.
My morality and religion, which are my true self, have passed
through that stage; that is to say they were once in the stage of the
Patriarch and of the Psalmist. Virtually, I was in them. My more
perfect condition, therefore, must share the blame which mistakenly
appears—this is a mistake into which unhistorical minds fall—to
belong only to their more imperfect condition. Both are equally parts
of the same growth. I now look upon these earlier stages of my
moral being as I do upon my own childhood. To speak of the ideas,
or of the acts of the Patriarch, or of the Psalmist as, perhaps, I might
have been disposed to speak of them formerly would, I now feel, be
to blaspheme my own parentage. I look with a kind of awe on the
failure—so shocking and so intelligible—of their efforts to find the
right path upon which, through a long series of such efforts, I, their
moral offspring, and heir, have at last been brought. Now I link
myself to the past, and I feel the power and the value of the bond.
Now I know that my religion and morality are not a something or
other of recent ascertainable date; a something or other that has
come hap-hazard; even that might, conceivably, never have been.
They are something, I know, that appertains to man; that came into
being with him, indeed that is of his very being; that has grown with
his growth, and strengthened with his strength; and which
accumulating experience and enlarging knowledge have, all along,
ever been purifying, broadening, deepening. I see distinctly, now,
that they rest on foundations in man himself, which nothing can
overthrow or shake. A conviction is brought home to me that I am
standing on an everlasting rock. Formerly there might have been
some lurking germ of suspicion or misgiving that I was standing on
ground that was not quite defensible. Universal history, rightly
understood, dissipates these enfeebling misgivings, and generates
that invaluable conviction. It is a conviction which nothing can touch,
for it rests on incontrovertible facts and unassailable reasonings; and
which are such as will justify a man in expending his own life, and in
calling upon others to do the same, for the maintenance and
advancement of morality and religion.
And this connexion with the past appears to give a prospective as
well as retrospective extension to my being. If I am in the past, then,
by parity of reason, I am equally in the future. As my moral and
intellectual being was, in this way, forming itself before I was in the
flesh, it will continue, in the same way, the same process after I shall
have put off the flesh. The dissolution of the body will not affect what
existed before the assumption of the body.
These thoughts I did not take with me to the East, or, if I did, they
had at that time only a potential existence in my mind as
unquickened germs. It was what I saw and felt in the East that gave
them life and shape. At all events, I brought them back with me as
recognized and active elements of my mental being.
I am aware that there are some on whom the sight of the
diversities observable among different peoples in moral and religious
ideas has an effect the very contrary to that which I have been
describing. Instead of helping them to bring their knowledge on these
subjects into order, and giving them solid foundations to rest the
structure upon, it appears in them only to make confusion worse
confounded, and to render more incapable of support what had in
them little enough support before. But may not this arise from the
fact that the true idea of history does not exist in the minds of these
persons? For I suppose that just as true science infallibly generates
the craving, and, as far as it reaches, the successful effort, to
harmonize all nature, so does true history the craving, and, as far as
it reaches, the successful effort, to harmonize all that is known of
man. One man observes differences in moral ideas, and thence
infers that it is impossible to arrive at any fixed and certain
conclusions on such subjects. Another man observes the same
differences, but observing at the same time that they are those of
growth and development, thence infers that the principle of which
they are the growth and development must be as real and certain as
anything in the earth beneath, or in the heaven above.
There is no difficulty in understanding the prepotency these ideas
must have in modifying and forming a man’s conceptions of duty and
of happiness.
God who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in times past to the
Fathers.—Epistle to the Hebrews.