Plate 69.--STAR WORSHIPERS.
1. God apportioned certain of the earth for the tribes of Shem of the arc of Noe'chi, a heavenly place, seat of mountains, and Lords, All Wise, and from His Wisdom directed Hirto into His pastures.
2. Hirto, Son of Neph, born of an egg, descended out of the highest heaven. He was a most gracious Lord, and in deference to Om, smote against the rocks of heaven. So, when the egg was broken, one-half of the shell ascended, the other half became the foundation of the world.
3. The evil voice (satan) spake to the children of men, and polluted them. Whereupon the Great Spirit spoke in the firmament of heaven, saying: To Hirto, son of Neph, I bequeathed the tribes of Shem forever. For they have withstood Anra'mainyus, My everlasting enemy. So Hirto became Lord of Shem, and he banished Anra'mainyus down under the earth, where he busieth himself building fires for the furnaces of hell, whereof the smoke and flames come up through the earth and are called Agni (volcanoes), that his existence might be known to men.
4. Thus came Evil from Good; but that Everlasting Wisdom should prevail with mortals and the spirits of heaven, All Light created Visvasrij (law, or natural law), as a creator to abide forever. Before this time there were two things in the world: Voidness was one, and Vachis was the other. Vachis vach, and the world was. So it came to pass that Voidness was divided into two parts, the seen and the unseen worlds.
5. The unseen spake in the wind three sounds, E-O-IH, and was called by mortals Eolin, God of the wind; so Eolin showed himself in three colors: yellow, which is the highest color; blue, which is the coldest color; and red, which is the warmest color.
6. Eolin said: Out of My three sounds, are all sounds made; out of My three colors, are all colors made. He was the All Master.
7. He said: Three worlds have I made: the earth world, which is for mortals; the all high heavens, which is for pure and wise angels; and the intermediate world, which resteth on the earth.
8. Eolin said: Three lights have I created: the sun, to rule the day; the moon, to rule the night; and the burning fire, for the use of man.
9. Three spirit lights created I: Ruch, which issueth out of My soul; Shem, which cometh from My Lords in heaven to the souls of men; and Vas, which cometh from the spirits of the intermediate world.
10. Eolin said: Three states am I in: Ghost, which is ever-present and unchangeable; Corpor, which is in places, like the earth and stars and sun and moon; and Motion, which is everlasting unrest. So am I, Eolin, Mightiest in three, in All Place and All Time.
11. When the egg was broken and the shell distributed, lo and behold, the se'mu of the egg had nowhere to rest, and being void of compact distributed in the void world and was not seen. Then Hirto, High Lord of the upper heavens, sent whirlwinds abroad, and they gathered of the substance of the egg and rained it down on the earth.
12. Uz, son of Eolin, ran quickly and turned Anra'mainyus' fires to the north, and Eolin touched the earth with his quickening hand, and straightway all the living were created.
13. So Eolin said: Thou, My first begotten Son, it shall be thine to keep forever. Neither shall there be any other God.
14. But it came to pass in course of time the evil voice (satan) encompassed the earth about with serpents that spake like men and angels, and the serpents made friends with All Evil, Father of Anra'mainyus; and the women of the tribes of A'su went and tempted the first men, the I'hins, whereby there was born into the world evil offspring.
15. Hirto, Lord of the earth, drove the first men out of the region of light, and sat high-born angels on the boundaries of Chinvat, at the gates of the upper heaven, to guard the tribes of Faithists ever after. Nevertheless, evil, being set on foot, soon overspread the earth. So Hirto rested his hands on his thighs, and swore an oath unto All Light that he would drown the world and all the living. And in answer to the Lord a seraphim, a mighty fire-ship, came down out of the sun region, opening the flood-gate of heaven with a sea of water, and all the people perished, save the I'hins, the sacred people, friends of the Lord of earth.
16. So the Lord took the hollow of his hand and lifted up his people, and gave them doves' wings, and they flew afar and came to the land where dwelleth the Lord, so it was called Shem as a proof to all the world.
17. In those days God was near mortals, so that, when an honest man spake, the Lord answered him. And Anra'mainyus was near also, and when an evil man spake an evil voice answered him. For that reason the Lord singled out the purest and most virtuous of women; the wisest, strongest and most faithful, best of men, and married them, giving two women to one man, according to law. And the heirs of the wisest and most virtuous of men and women were wiser than their parents. And the Lord gave this secret to his people in the house of God, and they gave the knowledge to the chosen people.
18. Hirto said: For this reason, O my beloved, shall ye not wed with the druks, the dark people, that burrow in the ground, lest your seed be polluted, and your heirs go down to hell with Anra'mainyus.
19. But Anra'mainyus, evil creator of evil, went to the druk women; speaking to them in a dark corner, he said: Ye have of the root of Babao to make delirious; fetch it to the white people that came with doves' wings; fetch, and they will eat and get drunk. And when the young men are drunk, go ye to them, for they are my gift.
20. So, of them that came out of the arc of Noe'chi, was sin newborn; for the druks went in where they were drunk, saying: Lest the white people and the yellow people fall upon us, and our seed perish on the earth, make us of flesh and kin, bone and bone, blood and blood.
21. Hirto, the Lord God, saw into the darkness, and being compassionate, said: A great punishment will I visit on Anra'mainyus for this; his head shall droop in sorrow. But as for the I'hins, being drunk, I will forgive them. And as to the newborn people, they shall become the mightiest of all people in the whole world, because they came out of both darkness and light. The darkness in them shall battle all darkness; the light that is in them shall then master over their own darkness. But as for the druks, they shall go down in darkness forever.
2. And when Tah was old, and died, the mantle of the Lord's gifts fell on Tah's son; who also had power to hear the Voice; and he also kept a record of the Lord's words.
3. And then he died, and his son succeeded in the same way; and, because of this truth, the Lord called all of them by the sacred name, Tah, the order of which continued for a hundred generations. And it came to pass that the I'hins filled the country far and near with cities; and yet, in all the while, they killed nothing that had been created alive to breathe, on the earth, or in the water, or in the air above.
4. In the early days of the I'hins, the Lord spake through the chief prophet, saying: When the inhabitants of one city or tribe marry with those of another city or tribe, behold, it is but just that the names of father and mother be given to the offspring.
5. But men were in darkness in those days, and understood not God. So, accordingly, the inhabitants combined the names belonging to the neighboring tribes. That is to say, one tribe said, ut (wheat); another tribe, for the same thing, said, yat; and another tribe said, wat; and another, hoot; and so on. So, the after-generations said, utyatwathoot (wheat), and this was called the Yi-ha language; and so great were the number and the size of the words used, that the writings of the ancient prophets were lost, because none could understand them.
6. The Lord spake, saying: Because I desired to preserve the genealogy of my chosen, ye have applied the law to things that are worthless in my sight. Ye have built a babble, a tower of words, so that your tongues are confounded one with another. Ye strove to reach to heaven with a multitude of words, but made food for hada (hades).
7. The Lord said: Come, now, into murdhan (a spirit circle), and I will deliver you. So the people sat in crescent, and the Lord came betwix the horns, saying: Behold, ye are Tau, but I am the S'ri (Spirit). My word shall stand against all the world.
8. Hear, then, the commandments of God (Hautot). Because ye have built a tower of words, ye are confounded. But I come not in anger, but to deliver you. Neither will I write more, nor teach written words, for they are only folly, save to the learned.
9. By mouth-words will I teach, and ye shall repeat after me. And these shall be sacred words to the end of the world.
10. So the Lord taught orally in the temple, face to face with the people, and they learned the words and the meaning thereof.
11. And those who learned the best, the Lord named Ritvij, because he made them teachers over others. The Lord said: Because ye have confounded the language of the ancients, I will give you a new language, and it shall be vede (perfect), against all my enemies; nor shall any man more meddle with the words I give.
12. Hirto (Lord) said: Love thy Lord God only, and with all thy soul. Turn thy face away from the angels who come to thee; they are the emissaries of Anra'mainyus.
13. Hirto said: Love the sun and moon, and all things on the earth, for they are the Lord's gift. What is spirit? It flieth away; it is nothing.
14. Smite the druj (spirits) that prophesy. They are nothing but lies; they are Anra'mainyus' emissaries.
15. Learn to prophesy by the sun, and by the moon and by the stars. They tell no lies.
16. The Lord then gave the signs of the zodiac (the horses, and cows, and lions, and sheep, and birds [See tablets in Saphah]) that rule upon the earth, and upon the winds of heaven, and on the heat and cold, and the sun, and moon and stars, and spring and summer, and fall and winter. But these things are here omitted in this book, because they are known in mortal histories to this day.
17. The Lord saith in this day, the kosmon era: Behold, O man, in the time of Osiris, I, the Lord, raised up many philosophers on the earth, and inspired them not only to fulfill the legends of the ancients, but also to write books of disputation, in order to turn man's mind away from the consultation of familiar spirits. After this manner did I inspire men to write, to wit:
18. Touching the matter of the egg, and also of Anra'mainyus, they appear never to have been proven, neither are they given on the authority of Hirto, the Lord of earth. It is reasonable to suppose that the Great Spirit divided up the worlds amongst His Gods and Lords, and that the earth (Bhu) fell to the portion of Hirto; whilst the stars, which are also worlds like this, fell to other Lords and Gods. But as for evil Gods, like Anra'mainyus, who hath ever seen one?
19. As for Hirto, the Lord, I have seen him myself, and so have thousands of other honest prophets. But when the Lord spake it was not about foolish stories, but to teach man how to live, that he might be happy himself and a glory to the Great Spirit. Neither did I ever hear the Lord assert that he was more than the spirit of a man risen from the earth. In my opinion, therefore, the Lord is the captain over the earth, and over all other spirits. But even to know this, is not so great a good truth as to know how to do righteously.
20. Of all things, therefore, man should learn, especially of what he can see, and hear, and prove, rather than of spirits whom he cannot prove, nor find when he wanteth them.
2. For I foresaw the breadth of the earth, and that it should be subdued for the glory of man; and in the early days, I divided my armies with wisdom.
3. To Ham I allotted the foundation of the migratory tribes of the earth. And of the tribes of Ham, behold, I selected many colors of men; whereof I fore-ordained the name Ham to stand as a living testimony to the end of the world. For I foresaw that the time would come when the nations would look back for histories of my peoples, and I erected certain words and signs which should be testimony in the later times of earth.
4. Of all colors (black, white, yellow, copper, red and brown) were the tribes of Ham; nevertheless, they were I'hins (Faithists), having flat nails and short arms, and of such as desired to acquire knowledge. And I brought them to a country of sand fields and of fields of rich pastures interspersed, where lived but few natives, the dark people, with short hair. Neither omitted I even the hair of the head of man without providing testimony of my word.
5. Of the I'hins, I provided testimony in all the divisions of the earth, with long hair belonging to the tribes that worshipped Jehovih, that man of the kosmon era might perceive that the land whence they sprang is not above the water.
6. Behold, the multiple (Yi-ha) language of the tribes of Shem! Side by side with the tribes of Jaffeth raised I them. And, behold, the latter use the derivation of the Panic language to this day.
7. For I gave unto the tribes of these two different lands my ten commandments and ten invocations, to be not written, but spoken and taught from mouth to ear, to be sacred in the language given.
8. Wherein man shall perceive that the same stories of the egg, and of the origin of evil in the world, could not have been communicated by mortals.
9. For I locked up sufficient of the Panic language in Jaffeth as a testimony to be discovered in after years; showing that, unlike Ham and Shem, a mighty nation could retain one language for thousands of years.
10. For I forsaw that philosophers would try to prove that languages were of mortal origin, and that they would change according to the growth of knowledge amongst men.
11. Behold, I gave scriptures unto all my people, enjoining some to adhere to the text; and, so, I preserved the work of my hand.
12. The tribes of Ham were previously ordained with characteristics to make them love to emigrate westward; and the tribes of Jaffeth and Shem with characteristics to make them love to stay within their own countries. And the tribes of Guatama with characteristics to make them love to go eastward. For I set a boundary to the tribes of Guatama, that they should not reach the ocean on the east.
13. The Lord said: Having designed Ham for teaching the barbarian world of me and my dominion, I also prepared them that, through their seed, men and women should have hair neither straight nor short, but long and curled, and red, and white, and brown, whereby might be traced in after ages the genealogy of nations.
14. Now, in the midst of three great countries, Jaffeth, Shem and Ham, was the chief place of the I'huans, where they founded a new nation; and the Lord called them Parsi'e, signifying, warrior Faithists, because he created them as a shield, to guard his chosen, the I'hins.
15. The difference betwixt the I'huans and the Parsi'e was that the I'huans lived near and about the I'hins, but the Parsi'e'ans lived in a nation by themselves.
16. Nevertheless, they were all of the same blood and kin, being half-breeds betwixt the I'hins and the native druks; and they were large, and mostly of the color of new copper.
17. And because they were favored of the Lord, the Lord gave them separate laws, and commanded them not to mix with the druks; the which commandment they kept for more than a thousand years.
18. But, in course of time, the Parsi'e'ans were tempted by the druks, and fell from their high estate, and they became cannibals.
19. And the Lord sent the Ghans, to whom he delivered his oral scriptures, to travel in search of his people; and, lo and behold, ten tribes of the Lord's people were lost in the wilderness; and this was the country of the Parsi'e'ans, and that land was filled with wild goats. Hence came the name, Land of Goats.
20. And the lost tribes, not being flesh-eaters, were at a loss for food; and they said: Come, let us live on goat's milk.
21. And they so lived for a long season, taming the goats, and keeping herds of them. And they roved about, driving their herds with them, for which reason they took the name of shepherd kings.
22. And the Lord looked on them with favor, saying: These that call themselves shepherd kings shall have this country. Behold, out of the seed of these people, will I do mighty wonders.
23. The Lord said: What man can discover, I, the Lord, left for him to discover; what man could not discover, I, the Lord, taught him.
24. To the shepherd kings revealed I how to make leather out of skins; neither had man any means to make this discovery. The shepherd kings made bags of leather in which they carried milk, which was thus churned; and they made butter, which was the first butter made in this world.
2. For I fore-ordained not to go within darkness to battle it, but to stand without, and give an example of righteousness for man to look upon.
3. Neither planned I from the beginning that my chosen should labor without examples of cities and kingdoms of righteousness.
4. The evil man and evil priest, who are subjects to satan and his hosts, remain in evil, preaching righteousness without a city or kingdom of example. But my chosen go away by themselves and build their cities, as a testimony of their faith in the Father.
5. And they practice the fullness of my commandments by their lives toward one another.
6. To him who saith: This is mine, I have not spoken. To him who saith: My house, my lands, I have not spoken.
7. For inasmuch as these things belong to them, such men belong to such things, and not to me.
8. For illustration of which truth, I raised up separate from the world's people, the I'hins, who were my living examples of righteousness.
9. Think not, however, that the I'hins were the perfection of manhood and womanhood. They were not a developed race, nor righteous because of their own knowledge.
10. By the constant presence of my exalted angels, they were obsessed to righteousness, being restrained away from evil. They were my sermon before the tribes of druks and cannibals that covered the earth over; and, by virtue of signs and miracles, and by non-resistance, preserved I them.
11. For man of himself evolveth only to power in evil; wherefore, O man, thou shalt behold my dominion over the races of men, to work righteousness and good-will.
12. And my examples reached into the souls of the barbarians, so that, in after ages, I should prepare them to hear my voice, and to comprehend my commandments.
13. For it is the fullness of light amongst men, when, without my presence or the presence of my hosts, they shall understand virtue and knowledge, practicing them of their own accord. In which time men shall perceive that righteousness, and peace, and love toward one another, are the foundation of the happiness of the spirit, and the only light of its resurrection.
14. The Lord said: Think not that I came to one nation alone, leaving the others in darkness; I came not to one alone, but unto all the divisions of the earth. According to what was required for them at times, so held I my hand over them, and they accomplished that which was designed from the beginning.
15. It being not the will of Jehovih that man should be forever led, because, forsooth, his Lord saith; but that man should ultimately have the light of practicing good works organically, from infancy up.
16. The Lord said: A teacher that doeth all things for his pupil, also sacrificeth his pupil; he who teacheth his pupil wrongly, sinneth against the Father; he who teacheth his pupil not at all, is accessory to evil. So standeth the Lord, your God, over the children of men.
17. Behold, I have demonstrated that my chosen can maintain themselves unharmed amongst barbarians; also that by unrestrained marriages a sacred people is quickly lost amongst barbarians.
18. For man, witnessing terrible conflicts, should rather desire sons of strong limbs and arms and crafty minds, to do murderous work abundantly; from which condition he had no incentive to rise in gentleness and love, for the glory of the Spirit.
19. That I, your Lord, might show after-generations, first, that without my hand in the work, no good nor peace could come amongst men; and, second, that only by a race of I'hins, as examples of my power, through signs and miracles, could the barbarians be reached for their own good.
20. Not only did I leave the ruins of my cities which had no gates of entrance, and houses without doors of entrance, that ye might have testimony of the race of I'hins, but I have shown you that only by such procedure could the barbarians be induced to a higher evolution.
21. Think not, O man, that I did not foresee the time when men should question whether the Great Spirit ever placed a Lord over the earth; and that man should say: Behold, there is no Lord and no God. For I foresaw these times, and provided angels to go in advance, to show, first, the evolution of the races of men from out of the lowest darkness; and, second, that the cause of the evolution came from the Great Spirit, and was directed unto righteousness; but had not been so, but for the Lord, your God.
22. For I left sufficient tribes unto this day, who dwell in darkness, even cannibals, as a testimony, that of themselves they possess nothing to cause a desire for evolution into knowledge, and peace, and industry, and love, and good works unto one another.
23. Will not man say: One people is raised up in consequence of the presence of their neighbor, and without a Lord or God, and the angels of heaven.
24. Now, behold, I have left savages at your door, and ye raise them not up, but destroy them. Showing you, that even your wisest and most learned have no power in resurrection. Neither have I left any way open for the resurrection of barbarians, save by examples of Faithists (I'hins), who shall practice righteousness and miracles.
25. And there shall rise up those who will do these things, and they shall succeed; and because of their success, they shall also be testimony of the I'hin race, in whom I laid the foundation for the redemption of the whole earth.
2. Here followeth, then, what became of these I'hins, to wit:
3. Those that came to Guatama survived twenty-one thousand years, and then became extinct.
4. Those that came to Jaffeth survived twenty-one thousand years, and then became extinct.
5. Those that came to Shem survived twelve thousand years, and then became extinct by amalgamation.
6. That that came to Ham survived twenty-one thousand years, and then became extinct by amalgamation.
7. Those of Guatama attained to one thousand large cities, and three thousand small cities, being more than four million souls. And they never had any king or queen, or other ruler, save the Lord, who ministered unto them through the city fathers. And they retained their sacred name of Guatama to the last; but the I'huans called them Oech'lo'pan, signifying, people of another world.
8. And in course of time they became diminutive, and desired not to marry. And there came great darkness (ocgokok) on the earth, with falling ashes, and heat, and fevers; and so the Lord took them up to heaven.
9. Those of Jaffeth attained to two thousand large cities, and seven thousand small ones, being more than eight million souls. And they retained the name Jaf-fa, to the last; but the I'huans called them Tua Git, signifying, people of spirit light.
10. And there came a'ji on the earth, and it touched them with impotency, and they brought forth no more heirs; so the Lord took them home.
11. Those of Shem attained to six hundred large cities, and two thousand small cities, being more than two million souls. Neither had they any king, but served the Lord through the city fathers. And they retained their name, Shem, to the last; but the I'huans called them Sri-vede-iyi, signifying, people of the true light, woman-like. And impotence came upon them, and they disappeared, even as a drop of water in the sunlight, and no man knew when they ceased to be.
12. But hoping to preserve their seed to the Lord, many of them married with the I'huans; but their children became I'huans also, neither having the silken hair nor the musical voices of the I'hins, nor the light of the upper heavens.
13. Those of Ham attained to one thousand two hundred large cities, and three thousand small cities, being four million souls. But, being of mixed colors, they did not become impotent. But they broke the law of God more than all other Faithists, being of warm blood; and they mixed greatly with the I'huans. And they had no kings nor queens, serving the Lord only, through the city fathers. And they retained the name of Ham to the last, when they ceased to exist as a separate people, because of their amalgamation with the I'huans.
14. The tribes that went in the two ships to the north land (Japan), no man could draw the line, after a thousand years, betwixt them and the I'huans, for they mingled therewith, and were lost, as I'hins. Nevertheless, they redeemed the barbarians into wisdom and peace.
2. Before this time, the I'hins could not inspire the barbarians to make leather and cloth; nor could they inspire them to industries of any kind in the way of virtue and peace.
3. The Lord provided unto the inhabitants of the earth, oracle houses, wherein the Lord could speak face to face with mortals; through his angels, chosen for this purpose, did the Lord thus teach mortals.
4. Persuading them to industries, and peace and righteousness, after the manner of the I'hins.
5. Teaching them of the stars and sun and moon; showing them how to find the times and seasons of the earth.
6. Inspiring them to observe the stars, and to name them, which names are preserved to this day.
7. I have established landmarks, saith the Lord. What I do, man cannot do. I lift the barbarian up; he giveth over his cruel practices by my command.
8. I call him to the observation of the stars, and he heedeth my voice.
9. Behold, O all ye that say there is no Lord, I have left a remnant of the barbarians. Go try your hand. Let them that find the cause of the progress of man, to come of the earth, go raise up the barbarian.
10. I say to man: Go commune with the spirits of the dead, and man doeth it. I say: Come away from such worship, and fall down before the stars, and man doeth it.
11. Jehovih said: My Lord, My God, go thou; call man to one thing to-day, and let him worship it. And to-morrow call him to another, and let him worship it. For man shall fall down and worship everything in heaven and earth. By trying them shall man know them. For in the day of my glory, kosmon, man shall put away all worshipful things, save Me, his Creator.
12. The Lord God said: Through the worshipful talents man can be raised up. Even as to great learning, man will not pursue it till he first worshippeth it.
13. In the time of Osiris, the Lord named the stars in heaven after the legendary names of Gods and Lords. And the Lord taught not that man should worship them, but that he should learn their glory and majesty in the firmament.
14. But man forgot the Creator because of the wonder of His works. Even to this day man inclineth to view as substantial and real, things that are seen, and to reject the All Potent, which is Unseen.
15. This was the command of God (Osiris), for man should learn corporeal things as well as spiritual. And I, the Lord, carried away the spirits of the dead, not suffering man and angels to commune together. For heretofore they had done this, and so had, both, rejected the higher heavens.
16. Jehovih saith: It is not the plan of My heavens for the spirits of the dead to remain on the earth forever, engaging in mortal servitude and practices.
17. Behold, the way of My kingdom, is upward; rather shall man on the earth seek to rise upward, than that the angels of heaven go downward.
18. Hence the Lord carried away the spirits of the dead, and he turned man's judgment to learning the glories of the lower kingdoms (corpor).
19. And man advanced in great learning; both of the sun, moon and stars, and of all things on the face of the earth.
20. The Lord said: These signs have I given to man, that he may comprehend the cycles of his Creator. When spiritual research is chief amongst men, they advance not in science, nor art, nor inventions, that belong to the earth. But, when man is bereft of spiritual aspiration, he advanceth in corporeal knowledge, and inventions, and investigations.
21. These signs foreshow the changes being wrought on mortals by the hand of the Almighty, through His Gods and Lords.
22. God said: Behold, I raised up great kings and queens on the earth; and I gave them pageantry, and rites and ceremonies, after the manner of heavenly things. And these I made as an aspiration to the multitude, that they might learn to provide themselves with the luxuries of all created things.
23. For I desired not that man should become spiritual until the earth and all manner of savage beasts and serpents were subdued. Otherwise man had descended into impotence, and failed on the earth.
24. These testimonies have I left before thee to this day; that the spiritual man inclineth to shut himself up in seclusion and prayer; but that the Osirians go forth to work manfully.
25. The Lord established reciprocities between kings and queens in those days. And this was the manner thereof:
26. The central kingdom was called the sun-kingdom, and the others were called satellites. And the chief ruler was called The Sun-King, or King of the Sun.
27. And the king maintained an observatory, for determining the times and seasons of the sun, moon, earth and stars. The name of the observatory was Temple of the Stars (Oke'i'git'hi).
28. The Lord said unto man: Build thou a chamber unto God within the temple of the stars.
29. And man so built it. And the Lord chose seers, one for every star chamber; and the seer sat therein, with a table before him, on which table sand was sprinkled. And the Lord wrote in the sand, with his finger, the laws of heaven and earth.
30. Thus gave God to man the names of the stars, and their seasons; and the seasons of the sun and moon and earth.
31. And the seer gave it to the king; and the king proclaimed the words thereof. And God gave man sacred days, for feasts and rites and ceremonies; according to the times of the moon and stars gave he them.
32. And the king, by command of God, caused the people to watch the stars and moon and sun, so they would know the sacred days.
33. The Lord said: I have days for planting, and days for reaping, and days for sailing of ships, and days for males and females. By the stars in the firmament, and by the moon's changes, shall man learn to know my times and seasons.
34. So man took to learning from the stars and moon and sun, to ascertain the will of God.
35. And nowhere in all the world prospered man in the Osirian philosophy as in Parsi'e, and in Jaffeth (China), and chief of all were the shepherd kings.
Plate 69.--STAR WORSHIPERS.
2. He excelled in building temples and palaces; and in all manner of inventions; in fabrics of linen and silk, and wool and find leather; in writing books and tablets; in mathematics; in laws and reciprocities; in navigation, and in inland travel; in making thermometers and barometers, and magnetic needles, and telescopes and microscopes; in chemistry and botany.
3. Verily did the philosophers of those days know the mysteries of heaven and earth.
4. And man became no longer thankful to God and his Lords; but man became conceited, saying:
5. The Gods are fools! All things are Nature, and of growth. Man had become wise in spite of God and his Lords. All things evolve into higher states; it is the natural order. Neither is there any All Person, Jehovih! He is void, like the wind.
6. And God saw the conceit of man, and he said: Behold, he that I have raised up, turneth against me. Now, verily will I go away from man for a season, that he may learn wisdom. Behold, man shall also find that many of his fellows whom he raiseth up, turn against himself.
7. So the Lord departed out of the star chambers; and, lo and behold, the places were filled by the spirits of the newly dead, who knew not the heavens above nor the way of the Almighty.
8. And man inquired of them, thus: Behold, thou art now a spirit! Tell me, is there any God, or Lord, or Jehovih?
9. And the spirits, desiring to flatter man, and, withal, not knowing the heavenly kingdoms, answered, saying: Nay, there is no God, nor Lord, nor All Person, Jehovih!
10. So the kings issued edicts, commanding the people to no longer worship God, nor Lord, nor Jehovih!
11. But woe, for the judgment of kings and queens. Man, having inherent worship in his soul, ceased indeed to worship God and his Lords, and even Jehovih; but, instead, he took to worshipping the stars.
12. Now, the spirits manifesting in the temples, advised one thing through one seer, and another through another; for they were of little knowledge, and wholly unorganized.
13. So, presently, the kings took to war against one another. Anarchy ensued, and man fell to destroying all the glories he had made.
14. Thus again, after three thousand years, man went down in darkness; again fell under the obsession of drujas, and again became a barbarian.