. . . For the benefit of readers who haven't heard about the missing parts of Oahspe, it should be explained that the 1882 first printing of Oahspe was not the first version of the book. The very first plates were made during the year of 1881 from the original manuscript of Oahspe as it was being received. These plates were made by Dr. Newbrough's printer friend, John A. Lant, whose printshop was located at 207-209 West 41st Street, New York City.
John Lant died in January, 1913 at Florisant, Missouri, but not without leaving ample evidence that he was indeed the first to make plates for what was to have been the first edition of Oahspe, during 1881. But his plates were never used. He took proof prints of each plate as they were made, and saved them away.
The 1882 "first edition" of Oahspe was actually the second version, printed from totally different electrotypes.
The 1891 "second edition" was revised from the 1882 version, printed from still newer plates, which was really the third version.
Wing Anderson purchased the 1881 "second edition" (third version) plates from Dr. Newbrough's daughterabout 1930, and it was from these that he published the "blue cover" editions of Oahspe (no longer in print). The 1891 Oahspe is still available in the English edition, in a smaller, handy size.
After a fifteen year search to find a copy of it, in 1960 Ray Palmer reprinted the 1882 Oahspe, which made this oldest edition available for the first time since the 1880's. Marjorie Palmer's Amherst Press continues to publish this Oahspe, which is the current American "green cover" edition.
Possibly among the materials Wing Anderson received with the 1891 Oahspe plates from Dr. Newbrough's daughter, he received a large "24" by "24" scrapbook with proof plates pasted in it, of material not included in Oahspe. These were John Lant proof sheets. The Essenes of Kosmon copied The Book of Knowledge from the contents of the Lant pages. This was done serially, in eight parts (separate booklets, long out of print). Later, Sam Bartolet published The Book of Knowledge in one booklet. It omitted some verses, but again made the manuscript available. Other proof sheet contents appeared by the Essenes of Kosmon magazine (the Kosmon Pioneer Bulletin, in issues dated from 1954 to 1958).
... After Ray Palmer's 1882 Oahspe came out, Wing published a special Kosmon Newsletter which included the letters from Dr. Newbrough and Andrew Howland, and the Saphah! title proof sheet. This was the only Lant proof sheet ever made public (only the contents were copied and published by from the others).
Jim Dennon
July, 1983
SAPHAH!
Book of Saphah
SAPHAH said: I am to perish. I, being Saphah, am of the perishable. I am of the earth perishable history. I am the dying history, not dead; the legends; the skeleton of a one time giant. In my youth I was science and philosophy; religion. I reach into all the nations of the earth; distance with me is nothing; time nothing. I was as a tree of life in time long past, the devotedly loved Son of Light. The fruit I bore fed all the inhabitants of the earth. But the flesh of the fruit hath perished; the seed still liveth. My seed is in languages, in words, in rocks and ruined walls; in fallen temples and buried cities. These are the remnants of my corporeal body. In these my last days, my remnants, that were once the living members of my body, shall come forth and speak their parting words to the new born Kosmon. Hear ye these, my sons and daughters; O ye that search for the light of ages past, but find not. I am the book of the past, of the things that are past; of the corporeal world perishable.
PAN
1. PAN said: I am the earth; the first habitable place for man; I am beneath the water. Being submerged, my name survives. My words are man's first words. On the continent of Pan were words first used by man.
2. I am the 'Ah', signifying earth. I am earth words. I am the dispersed language. From me, Pan, came all earth languages. In all nations I am found. I deliver up; by me shall man know Him Who sent me. By His angels I was given to mortals; by them brought forth in this day.
3. PAN said: My steadfast lieth in the East. I founded the words of China and India. Fonecia and Ebra are my offspring. By the tribes of Faithists was I carried over. Egoquim founded me in Guatama. Egoquim became Algonquin. I am before all other languages; the first spoken words. Before me, man uttered as a beast, but made no words.
4. PAN said: The angels made some men as prophets and healers of the sick. By impression and by voice, taught they the prophets to utter words. These were Pan words; that is, earth words. The prophets taught their brethren. Many words were made sacred, that they might be well learned and sacred.
5. PAN said: I come not in a day, nor in a year, nor in a hundred years. I come not to one man only, but to many. I was uttered differently in different places on the 'Ah', the earth, according to the throats and tongues and lips and their development. Nevertheless, I was the same language.
6. PAN said: I am the key to unlock words. I make all things speak. Asu, the first men, were thus taught. As the camel uttered, so was he called; and the cat and dog and all the living. As the child called his father, so was the name 'man' made. This was in some places, Ghan, and Egan (China); Edam and Edan (Fonece); Adam (Ebra, Hebrew); Puam (Sanscrit); Pam (Vede); Sam (Kii); Ang (Algonquin); Anger (Poit); and Man (English).
7. PAN said: Think not that all the living uttered alike in all places. The wild dog spake not as the tame one; nor the small like the large one. Neither could all Asu utter the same sounds alike. Nevertheless, on the continent of Pan they were taught to name the living after their own speech. Thus was Asu taught of land animals and of the birds and all things whatsoever that utter.
8. PAN said: The wind spake but was seen not. Asu was taught that Corpor, the Seen, was ruled over by Es, the Unseen. In the leaves the wind said Ee; in the ocean surge and in the storm's roar, Oh; and in the winter's whistle, Ih; and he called the Unseen, E, O, Ih; Eolin (Poit); Eolih (Zerl); Eloih (Fonece); Jehovih (Ebra, Hebrew); Wenowin (Algonquin); Egoquim (Huit); Ze-jo-is (China). Nor were these all, for there were many imperfections of His name. He was the Unseen. What the Unseen spake, the Seen should not speak. EOIh was Almighty.
9. PAN said: I am language. I am two members, the utterance and the behavior. All things are embraced in my two members. The unmoving are dead; a stone has a name, but no behavior; it is unmoving; it is dead. It is the property of Uz.
10. Two behaviors have things. If a man look toward Uz, it is downward; if toward Jehovih, it is upward. If a man march toward Uz, it is war and destruction; if toward Light, it is peace and wisdom. Whoever learneth these, my signs, shall read all languages.
TREE OF LANGUAGE.-- China, India, Europe and America, the four branches of the earth, languages from one root.
What was the tree, and where grew it, that none can find it? Where lieth the submerged continent, the forgotten world? Whence escaped the struggling mortals, to float to far off continents, and tell the tale in all lands of a mighty flood?
PAN, (of language) the first guttural sounds approximating words.
POIT, beginning of labial word-sounds.
HUIT, first acquiesced language.
FUS, first written word-signs.
CHINE, monosyllabic.
YI-HA, combination words.
ABRAM, first words; original text.
FONECE, following the sound, but not the signs (writing).
AHAM, amalgamation.
EBRA, the old; the sacred.
SANSCRIT, mixture.
ARABA, (first Egyptian also) 'Teeth and thorax.'
ALGONQUIN, after the sacred name E-Go-Quim.
SPEECH
1. Jehovih said: As I caused man to grow, so I caused man's language to grow. Yea, even as the earth matureth in its place, so shall man look backward and judge what has been.
2. According to the time and place of the earth, so spake man. And it was so. And the deviation in the progress of speech was even as the deviation of the vortex of the earth.
3. Even the words of man in ages past shall be revealed by My seers in the time of Kosmon. And it was so.
EMP'AGATU
1. EMP'AGATU said: I am the son of Se'moin, son of Jehovih. I am the change of voice of the Seen and Unseen. No man can measure my mysteries. I travel with the growth of mortals. Think not this is my all; it is not my all. I am like the consuming fire that never ceases to burn. I was with the ancients; am today and will be forever. I am he that receiveth new signs and symbols; the old I cast away as a worn cloth, and the new is my house of idols. Mortals are my working tools, and my records the food of all nations.
2. EMP'AGATU said: When my people are grown in the tongue; grown in the lips; grown in the throat; grown in the nose, then I come in a chariot of fire and consume their libraries. With a stealthy tread and silent whisper I say unto men: Go not back to the ancients, O my beloved, nor seal up your souls, that Eolin may enter and give you light. Know ye that words are but idols and graven images? But they will not hear, and the Es that is in them cries out with bondage, and I send the burning flame and burn their books into ashes, for I will deliver them from the bondage of the ancients.
3. JEHOVIH, the mighty, Eolin of old, saith: Go, My son, Emp'agatu, give to the swift-growing Es of mortals, larger signs and words. Behold, they grope in the ruins of the past for the idols of old.4. EMP'AGATU said: By the angels in high heaven, the Sons of Jehovih, am I called forth in this day to yield up the records of the past. Think not that I yield up all. I yield up only to show the way of my labors. The learned men of Corpor shall also search me out of the earth and buried monuments, and my tablets shall read in the East, and West, and the North and South.
Plate 72.--TABLET OF EMP'AGATU.
(Fonece-Hizi Tribe.)