PART III.

THE THEOSOPHY OF SIMON.

In treating of eschatology and the beginning of things the human mind is

ever beset with the same difficulties, and no matter how grand may be

the effort of the intellect to transcend itself, the finite must ever

fail to comprehend the infinite. How much less then can words define

that which even the whole phenomenal universe fails to express! The

change from the One to the Many is not to be described. How the

All-Deity becomes the primal Trinity, is the eternal problem set for

man's solution. No system of religion or philosophy has ever explained

this inexplicable mystery, for it cannot be understood by the embodied

Soul, whose vision and comprehension are dulled by the grossness of its

physical envelope. Even the illuminated Soul that quits its prison

house, to bathe in the light of infinitude, can only recollect flashes

of the Vision Glorious once it returns again to earth.

And this is also the teaching of Simon when he says:

I say there are many gods, but one God of all these gods,

incomprehensible and unknown to all, ... a Power of immeasurable

and ineffable Light, whose greatness is held to be

incomprehensible, a Tower which the maker of the world does not

know.

This is a fundamental dogma of the Gnôsis in all climes and in all ages.

The demiurgic deity is not the All-Deity, for there is an infinite

succession of universes, each having its particular deity, its Brahmâ,

to use the Hindû term, but this Brahmâ is not THAT which is

Para-Brahman, that which is beyond Brahmâ.

This view of the Simonian Gnôsis has been magnificently anticipated in

the _Rig Veda_ (x. 129) which reads in the fine translation of

Colebrooke as follows:

That, whence all this great creation came,

Whether Its will created or was mute,

The Most High Seer that is in highest Heaven,

He knows it--or perchance even He knows not.

In treating of emanation, evolution, creation or whatever other term may

be given to the process of manifestation, therefore, the teachers deal

only with one particular universe; the Unmanifested Root, and Universal

Cause of all Universes lying behind, in potentiality ([Greek: dynamis]),

in Incomprehensible Silence ([Greek: sigae akatalaeptos]). For on the

"Tongue of the Ineffable" are many "Words" ([Greek: logoi]), each

Universe having its own Logos.

Thus then Simon speaks of the Logos of this Universe and calls it Fire

([Greek: pyr]). This is the Universal Principle or Beginning ([Greek:

ton holon archae]), or Universal Rootage ([Greek: rizoma ton holon]).

But this Fire is not the fire of earth; it is Divine Light and Life and

Mind, the Perfect Intellectual ([Greek: to teleion noeron]). It is the

One Power, "generating itself, increasing itself, seeking itself,

finding itself, its own mother, its own father, its sister, its spouse:

the daughter, son, mother, and father of itself; One, the Universal

Root." It is That, "which has neither beginning nor end, existing in

oneness." "Producing itself by itself, it manifested to itself its own

Thought ([Greek: epinoia])."

It is quite true that this symbology of Fire is not original with

Simon, but there is also no reason to suppose that the Samaritan

teacher plagiarized from Heracleitus when we know that the major part of

antiquity regarded fire and the sun as the most fitting symbols of

Deity. Of the manifested elements, fire was the most potent, and

therefore the most fitting symbol that could be selected in manifested

nature.

But what was the Fire of Heracleitus, the Obscure ([Greek: ho

skoteinos]), as Cicero, with the rest of the ancients, called him,

because of his difficult style? What was the Universal Principle of the

"weeping philosopher," the pessimist who valued so little the estimation

of the vulgar ([Greek: ochloloidoros])? It certainly was no common

"fire," certainly no puerile concept to be brushed away by the mere

hurling of an epithet.

Heracleitus of Ephesus (_flor. c._ 503 B.C.) was a sincerely religious

man in the highest sense of the word, a reformer who strongly opposed

the degenerate polytheism and idolatry of his age; he insisted on the

impermanence of the phenomenal universe, of human affairs, beliefs and

opinions, and declared the One Eternal Reality; teaching that the Self

of man was a portion of the Divine Intelligence. The object of his

enquiry was Wisdom, and he reproached his vain-glorious countrymen of

the city of Diana with the words: "Your _knowledge_ of many things does

not give you _wisdom_."

In his philosophy of nature he declared the One Thing to be Fire, but

Fire of a mystical nature, "self-kindled and self-extinguished," the

vital quickening power of the universe. It was that Universal Life, by

participation in which all things have their being, and apart from which

they are unsubstantial and unreal. This is the "Tree of Life" spoken of

by Simon.

In this Ocean of Fire or Life--in every point or atom of it--is inherent

a longing to manifest itself in various forms, thus giving rise to the

perpetual flux and change of the phenomenal world. This Divine Desire,

this "love for everything that lives and breathes," is found in many

systems, and especially in the Vedic and Phoenician Cosmogony. In the

_Rig Veda_ (x. 129), it is that Kâma or Desire "which first arose in It

(the Unknown Deity)," elsewhere identified with Agni or Fire. In the

fragments of Phoenician Cosmogony, recovered from Sanchuniathon, it is

called Pothos ([Greek: pothos]) and Erôs ([Greek: eros]).

In its pure state, the Living and Rational Fire of Heracleitus resides

in the highest conceivable Heaven, whence it descends stage by stage,

gradually losing the velocity of its motion and vitality, until it

finally reaches the Earth-stage, having previously passed through that

of "Water." Thence it returns to its parent source.

In this eternal flux, the only repose was to be found in the harmony

that occasionally resulted from one portion of the Fire in its descent

meeting another in its ascent. All this took place under Law and Order,

and the Soul of man being a portion of the Fire in its pure state, and

therefore an exile here on Earth, could only be at rest by cultivating

as the highest good, contentment ([Greek: euarestaesis]), or

acquiescence to the Law.

The author of the _Philosophumena_ professes to give us some additional

information on this philosopher who "bewailed all things, condemning the

ignorance of all that lives, and of all men, in pity for the life of

mortals," but the obscure philosopher does not lend himself very easily

to the controversial purposes of the patristic writer. Heracleitus

called the Universal Principle ([Greek: ton hapanton archae])

Intellectual Fire ([Greek: pur noeron]), and said that the sphere

surrounding us and reaching to the Moon was filled with evil, but beyond

the Moon-sphere it was purer.[97]

The sentences that the author quotes from Heracleitus in Book IX, are

not only obscure enough in themselves, but are also rendered all the

more obscure by the polemical treatment they are subjected to by the

patristic writer. Heracleitus makes the ALL inclusive of all Being and

Non-Being, all pairs of opposites, "differentiation and

non-differentiation, the generable and ingenerable, mortal and immortal,

the Logos and Aeon, and the Father and Son," which he calls the "Just

God." This ALL is the "Sadasat-Tatparam yat" of the _Bhagavad Gîtâ_,

inclusive of Being (Sat), Non-Being (Asat), and That Which transcends

them (Tatparam yat).[98]

This Logos plays an important part in the system of the Ephesian sage,

who says that they who give ear to the Logos (the Word or Supreme

Reason) know that "All is One" ([Greek: hen panta eidenai]). Such an

admission he calls, "Reflex Harmony" ([Greek: palintropos harmoniae]),

like unto the Supernal Harmony, which he calls Hidden or Occult, and

declares its superiority to the Manifested Harmony. The ignorance and

misery of men arise from their not acting according to this Harmony,

that is to say, according to (Divine) Nature ([Greek: kata phusin]).

He also declares that the Aeon, the Emanative Deity, is as a child

playing at creation, an idea found in both the Hindû and Hermetic

Scriptures. In the former the Universe is said to be the sport (Lîlâ) of

Vishnu, who is spoken of in one of his incarnations as Lîlâvatâra,

descending on earth for his own pleasure, when as Krishna he assumed the

shape of man as a pretence (a purely Docetic doctrine), hence called

Lîlâ-mânusha-vigraha; while in the latter we learn from a magic papyrus

that Thoth (the God of Wisdom) created the world by bursting into "seven

peals of laughter." This, of course, typifies the Bliss of the Deity in

Emanation or Creation, caused by that Divine Love and Compassion for all

that lives and breathes, which is the well-spring of the Supreme Cause

of the Universe.

Diving into the Mystery of Being, Heracleitus showed how a thing could

be good or evil, and evil or good, at one and the same time, as for

instance sea water which preserved and nourished fishes but destroyed

men. So also, speaking in his usual paradoxical manner, which can only

be understood by a full comprehension of the dual nature of man,--the

real divine entity, and the passing and ever-changing manifestation,

which so many take for the whole man--he says:

The immortals are mortal, and the mortals immortal, the former

living the death of the latter, and the latter dying the life of

the former.[99]

Thus all externals are transitory, for "no one has ever been twice on

the same stream, for different waters are constantly flowing down," and

therefore in following externals we shall err, for nothing is efficient

and forcible except through Harmony, and its subjection to the Divine

Fire, the central principle of Life.

Such was the Fire of the distinguished Ephesian, and of like nature was

the Fire of Simon with its three primordial hypostases, Incorruptible

Form ([Greek: aphthartos morphae]), Universal Mind ([Greek: nous ton

holon]), and Great Thought ([Greek: epinoia megalae]), synthesized as

the Universal Logos, He who has stood, stands and will stand ([Greek: ho

estos, stas, staesomenos]).

But before passing on to the aeonology of Simon, a short delay, to

enquire more fully into the notions of the Initiated among the ancients

as to the nature of Mystic Fire, will not be without advantage.

If Simon was a Samaritan and learned in the esoteric interpretation of

scripture, he could not have failed to be acquainted with the Kabalah,

perhaps even with the now lost Chaldaean _Book of Numbers_. Among the

books of the Kabalah, the _Zohar_, or "Book of Splendour," speaks of the

mysterious "Hidden Light," that which Simon calls the Hidden Fire

([Greek: to krupton]), and tells us of the "Mystery of the Three Parts

of the Fire, which are One" as follows:

Began Rabbi Sim-on and said: Two verses are written, "That YHVH thy

Elohim is a devouring fire, a zealous Ail (El)" (_Deut._, iv. 24);

again it is written, "But you that cleave unto YHVH your Elohim,

are alive, every one of you, this day" (_Deut._, iv. 4). On this

verse "That YHVH thy Elohim is a consuming fire," this we said to

the companions; That it is a fire which devours fire, and it is a

fire which devours itself and consumes itself, because it is a fire

which is more mighty than fire, and it has been so confirmed. But,

Come, See! Whoever desires to know the wisdom of the Holy Unity

should look in that flame arising from a burning coal or a lighted

lamp. This flame comes out only when united with another thing.

Come, See! In the flame which goes up are two lights: one light is

a bright white and one light is united with a dark or blue; the

white light is that which is above and ascends in a straight path,

and that below is that dark or blue light, and this light below is

the throne to the white light and that white light rests upon it,

and they unite one to the other so that they are one. And this dark

light, or blue colour, which is below, is the precious throne to

the white. And this is the mystery of the blue. And this blue dark

throne unites itself with another thing to light that from below,

and this awakes it to unite with the upper white light, and this

blue or dark, sometimes changes its colour, but that white above

never changes its colour, it is always white; but that blue changes

to these different colours, sometimes to blue or black and

sometimes to a red colour, and this unites itself to two sides. It

unites to the above, to that white upper light, and unites itself

below to the thing which is under it, which is the burning matter,

and this burns and consumes always from the matter below. And this

devours that matter below, which connects with it and upon which

the blue light rests, therefore this eats up all which connects

with it from below, because it is the nature of it, that it devour

and consume everything which depends on it and is dead matter, and

therefore it eats up everything which connects with it below, and

this white light which rests upon it never consumes itself and

never changes its light, and therefore said Moses; "That YHVH thy

Elohim is a consuming fire." Surely He consumes. It devours and

consumes every thing which rests under it; and on this he said:

"YHVH is thy Elohim" not "our Elohim," because Moses has been in

that white light, Above, which neither devours nor consumes. Come,

See! It is not His Will to light that blue light that should unite

with that white light, only for Israël; because they cleave or

connect under Him. And, Come, See! Although the nature of that dark

or blue light is, that it shall consume every thing which joins

with it below, still Israël cleaves on Him, Below, ... and although

you cleave in Him nevertheless you exist, because it is written:

"You are all alive this day." And on this white light rests above a

Hidden Light which is stronger. Here is the above mystery of that

flame which comes out from it, and in it is the Wisdom of the

Above.[100]

And if Chaldaea gave the impulse which enshrined the workings of the

Cosmos in such graphic symbology as the above, we are not surprised to

read in the Chaldaean Oracles ([Greek: logia]),[101] ascribed to

Zoroaster, that "all things are generated from One Fire."[102] And this

Fire in its first energizing was intellectual; the first "Creation" was

of Mind and not of Works:

For the Fire Beyond, the first, did not shut up its power ([Greek:

dunamis]) into Matter ([Greek: hulae]) by Works, but by Mind, for

the fashioner of the Fiery Cosmos is the Mind of Mind.[103]

A striking similarity with the Simonian system, indeed, rendered all the

closer by the Oracle which speaks of that:

Which first leaped forth from Mind, enveloping Fire with Fire,

binding them together that it might interblend the

mother-vortices,[104] while retaining the flower of its own

Fire.[105]

This "flower" of Fire and the vorticle idea is further explained by the

Oracle which says:

Thence a trailing whirlwind, the flower of shadowy Fire, leaping

into the wombs (or hollows) of worlds. For thence it is that all

things begin to stretch below their wondrous rays.[106]

Compare this with the teaching of Simon that the "fruit" of the Tree is

placed in the Store-house and not cast into the Fire.

In his aeonology, Simon, like other Gnostic teachers, begins with the

Word, the Logos, which springs up from the Depths of the

Unknown--Invisible, Incomprehensible Silence. It is true that he does

not so name the Great Power, He who has stood, stands and will stand;

but that which comes forth from Silence is Speech, and the idea is the

same whatever the terminology employed may be. Setting aside the

Hermetic teachings and those of the later Gnôsis, we find this idea of

the Great Silence referred to several times in the fragments of the

Chaldaean Oracles. It is called "God-nourished Silence" ([Greek: sigae

theothremmon]), according to whose divine decrees the Mind that

energizes before all energies, abides in the Paternal Depth.[107] Again:

This unswerving Deity is called the Silent One by the gods, and is

said to consent (lit. sing together) with the Mind, and to be known

by the Souls through Mind alone.[108]

Elsewhere the Oracles demonstrate this Power which is prior to the

highest Heaven as "Mystic Silence."[109]

The Word, then, issuing from Silence is first a Monad, then a Duad, a

Triad and a Hebdomad. For no sooner has differentiation commenced in it,

and it passes from the state of Oneness ([Greek: monotaes]), than the

Duadic and Triadic state immediately supervene, arising, so to say,

simultaneously in the mind, for the mind cannot rest on Duality, but is

forced by a law of its nature to rest only on the joint emanation of the

Two. Thus the first natural resting point is the Trinity. The next is

the Hebdomad or Septenary, according to the mathematical formula

2^{n}-1, the sum of _n_ things taken 1, 2, 3 ... _n_, at a time. The

Trinity being manifested, _n_ here =3; and 2^{3}-1 = 7.

Thus Simon has six Roots and the Seventh Power, seven in all, as the

type of the Aeons in the Plerôma. These all proceed from the Fire. In

like manner also the Cabeiric deities of Samothrace and Phoenicia were

Fire-gods, born of the Fire. Nonnus tells us they were sons of the

mysterious Hephaestus (Vulcan),[110] and Eusebius, in his quotations

from Sanchuniathon, that they were _seven_ in number.[111] The Vedic

Agni (Ignis) also, the God of Fire, is called "Seven-tongued"

(Sapta-jihva) and "Seven-flamed" (Sapta-jvâla).[112]

In the _Hibbert Lectures_ of 1887, Prof. A.H. Sayce gives the following

Hymn of Ancient Babylonia to the Fire-god, from _The Cuneiform

Inscriptions of Western Asia_ (iv. 15):

1. The (bed) of the earth they took for their border, but the god

appeared not,

2. from the foundations of the earth he appeared not to make

hostility;

3. (to) the heaven below they extended (their path), and to the

heaven that is unseen they climbed afar.

4. In the Star(s) of Heaven was not their ministry; in Mazzaroth

(the Zodiacal signs) was their office.

5. The Fire-god, the first-born supreme, into heaven they pursued

and no father did he know.

6. O Fire-god, supreme on high, the first-born, the mighty, supreme

enjoiner of the commands of Anu!

7. The Fire-god enthrones with himself the friend that he loves.

8. He reveals the enmity of those seven.

9. On the work he ponders in his dwelling-place.

10. O Fire-god, how were those seven begotten, how were they

nurtured?

11. Those seven in the mountain of the sunset were born;

12. those seven in the mountain of the sunrise grew up.

13. In the hollows of the earth they have their dwelling;

14. on the high places of the earth their names are proclaimed.

15. As for them, in heaven and earth they have no dwelling, hidden

is their name.

16. Among the sentient gods they are not known.

17. Their name in heaven and earth exists not.

18. Those seven from the mountain of the sunset gallop forth;

19. those seven in the mountain of the sunrise are bound to rest.

20. In the hollows of the earth they set the foot.

21. On the high places of the earth they lift the neck.

22. They by nought are known; in heaven and in earth is no

knowledge of them.[113]

Though I have no intention of contending that Simon obtained his ideas

specifically from Vedic, Chaldaean, Babylonian, Zoroastrian, or

Phoenician sources, still the identity of ideas and the probability,

almost amounting to conviction for the student, that the Initiated of

antiquity all drew from the same sources, shows that there was nothing

original in the main features of the Simonian system.

This is also confirmed by the statements in Epiphanius and the

_Apostolic Constitutions_ that the Simonians gave "barbarous" or

"foreign names" to their Aeons. That is to say, names that were neither

Greek nor Hebrew. None of these names are mentioned by the Fathers, and

probably the Greek terms given by the author of the _Philosophumena_ and

Theodoret are exoteric equivalents of the mystery names. There is

abundant evidence, from gems, monuments and fragments, to show that

there was a mystery language employed by the Gnostic and other schools.

What this language was no scholar has yet been able to tell us, and it

is sufficiently evident that the efforts at decipherment are so far

abortive. The fullest and most precious examples of these names and of

this language are to be found in the papyri brought back by Bruce from

Abyssinia at the latter end of the last century.[114]

Jamblichus tells us that the language of the Mysteries was that of

ancient Egypt and Assyria, which he calls "sacred nations," as follows:

But, you ask, why among our symbolical terms ([Greek: saemantika])

we prefer barbarous (words) to our respective native (tongues)?

There is also for this a mystic reason. For it was the gods who

taught the sacred nations, such as the Egyptians and Assyrians, the

whole of their sacred dialect, wherefore we think that we ought to

make our own dialects resemble the speech cognate with the gods.

Since also the first mode of speech in antiquity was of such a

nature, and especially since they who learnt the first names

concerning the gods, mingled them with their own tongue--as being

suited to such (names) and conformable to them--and handed them

down to us, we therefore keep unchanged the rule of this immemorial

tradition to our own times. For of all things that are suited to

the gods the most akin is manifestly that which is eternal and

immutable.[115]

The existence of this sacred tongue perhaps accounts for the constant

distinction made by Homer between the language of the gods and that of

men.[116] Diodorus Siculus also asserts that the Samothracians used a

very ancient and peculiar dialect in their sacred rites.[117]

These "barbarous names" were regarded as of the greatest efficacy and

sanctity, and it was unlawful to change them. As the Chaldaean Logia say:

Change not the barbarous names, for in all the nations are there

names given by the gods, possessing unspeakable power in the

Mysteries.[118]

And the scholiast[119] adds that they should not be translated into

Greek.

It is, therefore, most probable that Simon used the one, three, five,

and seven syllabled or vowelled names, and that the Greek terms were

substitutes that completely veiled the esoteric meaning from the

uninitiated.

The names of the seven Aeons, as given by the author of the

_Philosophumena_, are as follows: The Image from the Incorruptible Form,

alone ordering all things ([Greek: eikon ex aphthartou morphaes kosmousa

monae panta]), also called The Spirit moving on the Waters ([Greek: to

pneuma to epipheroumenon epano tou hudatos]) and The Seventh Power

([Greek: hae ebdomae dunamis]); Mind ([Greek: nous]) and Thought

([Greek: epinoia]), also called Heaven ([Greek: ouranos]) and Earth

([Greek: gae]); Voice ([Greek: phonae]) and Name ([Greek: onoma]),[120]

also called Sun ([Greek: haelios]) and Moon ([Greek: selaenae]); Reason

([Greek: logismos]) and Reflection ([Greek: enthumaesis]), also called

Air ([Greek: aaer]) and Water ([Greek: hudor]).

The first three of these are sufficiently explained in the fragment of

Simon's _Great Revelation_, preserved in the _Philosophumena_, and

become entirely comprehensible to the student of the Kabalah who is

learned in the emanations of the Sephirothal Tree. Mind and Thought are

evidently Chokmah and Binah, and the three and seven Sephiroth are to be

clearly recognized in the scheme of the Simonian System which is to

follow.

Of the two lower Syzygies, or Lower Quaternary of the Aeons, we have no

details from the Fathers. We may, however, see some reason for the

exoteric names--Voice and Name, Reason and Reflection--from the

following considerations:

(1) We should bear in mind what has already been said about the Logos,

Speech and Divine Names. (2) In the Septenary the Quaternary represents

the Manifested and the Triad the Concealed Side of the Fire. (3) The

fundamental characteristics of the manifested universe with the Hindûs

and Buddhists are Name (Nâma) and Form (Rûpa). (4) Simon says that the

Great Power was not called Father until Thought (in manifestation

becoming Voice) _named_ ([Greek: onomasai]) him Father. (5) Reason and

Reflection are evidently the two lowest aspects, principles, or

characteristics, of the _divine_ Mind of man. These are included in the

lower mind, or Internal Organ (Antah-karana), by the Vedântin

philosophers of India and called Buddhi and Manas, being respectively

the mental faculties used in the certainty of judgment and the doubt of

enquiry.

This Quaternary, among a host of other things, typifies the four lower

planes, elements, principles, aspects, etc., of the Universe, with their

Hierarchies of Angels, Archangels, Rulers, etc., each synthesized by a

Lord who is supreme in his own domain. Seeing, however, that the

outermost physical plane is so vast that it transcends the power of

conception of even the greatest intellect, it is useless for us to

speculate on the interplay of cosmic forces and the mysterious

interaction of Spheres of Being that transcend all normal human

consciousness. It is only on the lowest and outermost plane that the

lower Quaternary symbolizes the four Cardinal Points. The Michael (Sun),

Gabriel (Moon), Uriel (Venus), and Raphael (Mercury) of the Kabalah, the

four Beasts, the Wheels of Ezekiel, were living, divine, and intelligent

Entities pertaining to the inner nature of man and the universe for the

Initiated.

It is to be presumed that the Simonians had distinct teachings on this

point, as is evidenced by the title of their lost work, _The Book of the

Four Angles and Points of the World_. The Four Angles were probably

connected with the four ducts or Streams of the "River going forth from

Eden to water the Garden." These Streams have their analogy on all

planes, and cosmically are of the same nature as the Âkâsha-Gangâ--the

Ganges in the Akâshic Ocean of Space--and the rest of the Rivers in the

Paurânic writings of the Hindûs.

But before going further it will be as well to have a Diagram or Scheme

of the Simonian Aeonology, for presumably the School of Simon had such a

Scheme, as we know the Ophites had from the work of Origen, _Contra

Celsum_.

[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF THE SIMONIAN AEONOLOGY.][121]

Of course no Diagram is anything more than a symbolical mnemonic, so to

say; in itself it is entirely insufficient and only permits a glance at

one aspect, or face, of the world-process. It is a step in a ladder

merely, useful only for mounting and to be left aside when once a higher

rung is reached. Thus it is that the whole of the elements of Euclid

were merely an introduction to the comprehension of the "Platonic

Solids," which must also, in their turn, be discarded when the within or

essence of things has to be dealt with and not the without or

appearance, no matter how "typical" that appearance may be.

Sufficient has already been said of the Universal Principle, of the

Universal Root and of the Boundless Power--the Parabrahman (That Which

transcends Brahmâ), Mûla-Prakriti (Root-Nature), and Supreme Îshvara,

or the Unmanifested Eternal Logos, of the Vedântic Philosophers. The

next stage is the potential unmanifested type of the Trinity, the Three

in One and One in Three, the Potentialities of Vishnu, Brahmâ, and

Shiva, the Preservative, Emanative, and Regenerative Powers--the Supreme

Logos, Universal Ideation and Potential Wisdom, called by Simon the

Incorruptible Form, Universal Mind and Great Thought. This Incorruptible

Form is the Paradigm of all Forms, called Vishva Rûpam or All-Form and

the Param Rûpam or Supreme Form, in the _Bhagavad Gîtâ_[122] spoken also

of as the Param Nidhânam or Supreme Treasure-house,[123] which Simon

also calls the Treasure-house [Greek: thaesauros] and Store-house

[Greek: apothaekae], an idea found in many systems, and most elaborately

in that of the _Pistis-Sophia_.

Between this Divine World, the Unmanifested Triple Aeon, and the World

of Men is the Middle Distance--the Waters of Space differentiated by the

Image or Reflection of the Triple Logos (D) brooding upon them. As there

are three Worlds, the Divine, Middle, and Lower, which have been well

named by the Valentinians the Pneumatic (or Spiritual), Psychic (or

Soul-World), and Hylic (or Material), so in the Middle Distance we have

three planes or degrees, or even seven. This Middle Distance contains

the Invisible Spheres between the Physical World and the Divine. To it

the Initiated and Illuminati, the Spiritual Teachers of all ages, have

devoted much exposition and explanation. It is divine and infernal at

one and the same time, for as the higher parts--to use a phrase that is

clumsy and misleading, but which cannot be avoided--are pure and

spiritual, so the lower parts are corrupted and tainted. The law of

analogy, imaging and reflection, hold good in every department of

emanative nature, and though pure and spiritual ideas come to men from

this realm of the Middle Distance, it also receives back from man the

impressions of his impure thoughts and desires, so that its lower parts

are fouler even than the physical world, for man's secret thoughts and

passions are fouler than the deeds he performs. Thus there is a Heaven

and Hell in the Middle Distance, a Pneumatic and Hylic state.

The Lord of this Middle World is One in his own Aeon, but in reality a

reflection of the triple radiance from the Unmanifested Logos. This Lord

is the Manifested Logos, the Spirit moving on the Waters. Therefore all

its emanations or creations are triple. The triple Light above and the

triple Darkness below, force and matter, or spirit and matter, both

owing their being and apparent opposition to the Mind, "alone ordering

all things."

The Diagram to be more comprehensible should be so arranged, mentally,

that each of the higher spheres is found within or interpenetrating the

lower. Thus, from this point of view, the centre is a more important

position than above or below. External to all is the Physical Universe,

made by the Hylic Angels, that is to say those emanated by Thought,

Epinoia, as representing Primeval Mother Earth, or Matter; not the Earth

we know, but the Adamic Earth of the Philosophers, the Potencies of

Matter, which Eugenius Philalethes assures us, on his honour, no man has

ever seen. This Earth is, in one sense, the Protyle for which the most

advanced of our modern Chemists are searching as the One Mother Element.

The idea of the Spirit of God moving on the Waters is a very beautiful

one, and we find it worked out in much detail in the Hindû scriptures.

For instance, in the _Vishnu Purâna_,[124] we find a description of the

emanation of the present Universe by the Supreme Spirit, at the

beginning of the present Kalpa or Aeon, an infinity of Kalpas and

Universes stretching behind. This he creates endowed with the Quality of

Goodness, or the Pneumatic Potency. For the three Qualities (or Gunas)

of Nature (Prakriti) are the Pneumatic, Psychic and Hylic Potencies of

the Waters of Simon.

At the close of the past (or Pâdma) Kalpa, the divine Brahmâ,

endowed with the quality of goodness, awoke from his night of

sleep, and beheld the universe void. He, the supreme Nârâyana, the

incomprehensible, the sovereign of all creatures, invested with the

form of Brahmâ, the god without beginning, the creator of all

things; of whom, with respect to his name Nârâyana, the god who has

the form of Brahmâ, the imperishable origin[125] of the world, this

verse is repeated: "The waters are called Nârâ, because they were

the offspring of Nara (the supreme spirit); and, as, in them, his

first (Ayana)[126] progress (in the character of Brahmâ) took

place, he is thence named Nârâyana (he whose place of moving was

the waters)."

Sir Wm. Jones translates this well-known verse of Manu[127] as follows:

The waters are called Nârâh, because they were the production of

Nara, or the spirit of God; and, since they were his first Ayana,

or place of motion, he thence is named Nârâyana or moving on the

waters.

Substantially the same statement is made in the _Linga, Vâyu_, and

_Mârkandeya Purânas_, and the _Bhâgavata_ explains it more fully as

follows:

Purusha (the Spirit) having divided the egg (the ideal universe in

germ), on his issuing forth in the beginning, desiring a place of

motion (Ayanam) for himself, pure he created the waters pure.

In the _Vishnu Purâna_, again, Brahmâ, speaking to the Celestials, says:

I, Mahâdeva (Shiva), and you all are but Nârâyana.[128]

The beautiful symbol of the Divine Spirit moving and brooding over the

Primordial Waters of Space--Waters which as differentiation proceeds

become more and more turbid--is too graphic to require further

explanation. It is too hallowed by age and sanctified by the consent of

humanity to meet with less than our highest admiration.

Dissertation on our Diagram could be pursued to almost any length, but

sufficient has already been said to show the points of correspondence

between the ideas ascribed to Simon and universal Theosophy.

Let us now enquire into the part played by Epinoia, the Divine Thought,

in the cosmic process, reserving the part played by her in the human

drama to when we come to treat of the soteriology of Simon. We have

evidently here a version of the great Sophia-mythus, which plays so

important a part in all Gnostic systems. On the one hand the energizings

of the mother-side of Divine Nature, on the other the history of the

evolution of the Divine Monad, shut into all forms throughout the

elemental spheres, throughout the lower kingdoms, up to the man stage.

The mystery of Sophia-Epinoia is great indeed, insoluble in its origins;

for how does that which is Divine descend below and create Powers which

imprison their parent? It is the mystery of the universe and of man,

insoluble for all but the Logos itself, by whose self-sacrifice Sophia,

the Soul, is finally freed from her bonds.

Epinoia is a Power of many names. She is called the Mother, or

All-Mother, Mother of the Living or Shining Mother, the Celestial Eve;

the Power Above; the Holy Spirit, for the Spiritus in some systems is a

feminine power (in a symbolical sense, of course), pre-eminently in the

_Codex Nazaraeus_, the scripture of the Mandaïtes. Again she is called

She of the Left-hand, as opposed to the Christos, He of the Right-hand;

the Man-woman; Prouneikos; Matrix; Paradise; Eden; Achamôth; the Virgin;

Barbelo; Daughter of Light; Merciful Mother; Consort of the Masculine

One; Revelant of the Perfect Mysteries; Perfect Mercy; Revelant of the

Mysteries of the Whole Magnitude; Hidden Mother; She who knows the

Mysteries of the Elect; the Holy Dove, who has given birth to the two

Twins; Ennoia; and by many another name varying according to the

terminology of the different systems, but ever preserving the root idea

of the World-Soul in the Macrocosm and the Soul in Man.

Within every form, aye, even apparently the meanest, is Epinoia

confined; for everything within is innate with Life; every form contains

a spark of the Divine Fire, essentially of the same nature as the All;

for in the Roots, and also in all things--since all is built on their

type--is "the whole of the Boundless Power together _in potentiality_,

but not _in actuality_."

The reason given for this imprisonment of Sophia in most of the systems

is that she endeavoured to create without her Syzygy, the Father or

Nous, wishing to imitate alone the self-generating power of the Supreme.

Thus through ignorance she involved herself in suffering, from which she

was freed by repentance and experience. What explanation of this supreme

mystery was publicly ventured on by Simon we cannot know, for the

patristic accounts are confused and contradictory.

Irenaeus tells us that:

She was the first Conception (Epinoia) of his Mind, the Mother of

All, by whom in the beginning he conceived in his Mind, the making

of the Angels and Archangels.

This Epinoia, leaping forth from _him_ (the Boundless Power), and

knowing what was the will of her Father, descended to the Lower

Regions and generated the Angels and Powers, by whom also he said

the world was made. And after she had generated them, she was

detained by them through envy, for they did not wish to be thought

the progeny of another. As for himself he was entirely unknown by

them; and it was his Thought (Epinoia) that was made prisoner by

the Powers and Angels that had been emanated by her. And she

suffered every kind of indignity at their hands to prevent her

reäscending to her Father, even to being imprisoned in the human

body and transmigrating into other female bodies, as from one

vessel into another.

Tertullian's account differs by the important addition that the "design

of the Father was prevented"; how or why he does not say.

She was his first Suggestion whereby he suggested the making of the

Angels and Archangels; that she sharing in this design had sprung

forth from the Father, and leaped down into the Lower Regions; and

that there, the design of the Father being prevented, she had

brought forth Angelic Powers ignorant of the Father, the artificer

of this world (?); by these she was detained, not according to his

intention, lest when she had gone they should be thought to be the

progeny of another, etc.

The _Philosophumena_ say nothing on this point, except that Epinoia

"throws all the Powers in the World into confusion through her

unsurpassable Beauty."

Philaster renders confusion worse confounded, by writing:

And he also dared to say that the World had been made by Angels,

and the Angels again had been made by certain endowed with

perception from Heaven, and that they (the Angels) had deceived the

human race.

He asserted, moreover, that there was a certain other Thought

(Intellectus) who descended into the world for the salvation of

men.

Epiphanius further complicates the problem as follows:

This Power (Prunîcus and Holy Spirit) descending from Above changed

its form.... And through the Power from Above ... displaying her

beauty, she drove them to frenzy, and on this account was she sent

for the despoiling of the Rulers who brought the World into being;

and the Angels themselves went to war on her account; and while she

experienced nothing, they set to work to mutually slaughter each

other on account of the desire which she infused into them for

herself.

Theodoret briefly follows Irenaeus.

In these contradictory accounts we have a great confusion between the

rôles played by Nous and Epinoia, the Father and Thought, the Spirit and

Spiritual Soul. Then again how did the Lower Regions come into

existence, for Epinoia to descend to them? This lacuna is filled by the

fuller information of the _Philosophumena_ which shows us the scheme of

self-emanation out or down into matter by similitude, thus confining the

problem of "evil" to space and time, and not raising it into an eternal

principle. Naturally it is not to be supposed that the origin of "evil"

is solvable for man in his present state, therefore whether it was

according to the design or contrary to the design of the Father, will

ever depend upon the point of view from which we severally regard the

problem.

Law, Justice, and Compassion are not incompatible terms to one whose

heart is set firm on spiritual things; and the view that evil is not a

thing in itself, but exists only because of human ignorance, is one that

must commend itself to the truly religious and philosophical mind. Thus

evil is not a fixed quantity in itself, it depends on the internal

attitude each man holds with regard to externals as to whether they are

evil or no.

For instance, it is not evil for an animal or savage to kill, for the

light of the higher law is not yet flaming brightly in their hearts.

That only is evil if we do what is displeasing to the Self. This may

perhaps throw some light on the Simonian dogma of action by accident

(_ex accidenti_), or institution ([Greek: thesei]), as opposed to action

according to nature (_naturaliter_ or [Greek: phusei])--evidently the

same idea as the teaching of Heracleitus to act according to nature

([Greek: kata phusin]) which he explains as according to the

Unmanifested Harmony which we can hear by straining our ears to catch

that still small voice within, the Voice of the Silence, the Logos or

Self. Simon presumably refers to this in the phrase "the things which

sound within" ([Greek: ta enaecha]), an idea remarkably confirmed by

Psellus,[129] who quotes the following Logion:

When thou seest a most holy, formless Fire shining and bounding

throughout the depths of the whole Cosmos, give ear to the Voice of

the Fire.

This brings us to a consideration of the teachings of Simon with regard

to the Lesser World, the Microcosm, Man, and to the scheme of his

soteriology. Evidently Simon taught the ancient, immemorial doctrine

that the Microcosm Man was the Mirror and Potentiality of the Cosmos,

the Macrocosm, as we have already seen above. Whatever was true of the

emanation of the Universe, was also true of Man, whatever was true of

the Macrocosmic Aeons was true of the Microcosmic Aeons in Man, which

are potentially the same as those of the Cosmos, and will develop into

the power and grandeur of the latter, if they can find suitable

expression, or a fit vehicle. This view will explain the reason of the

ancients for saying that we could only perceive that of which we have a

germ already within us. Thus it is that Empedocles taught:

By earth earth we perceive; by water, water; by aether, aether;

fire, by destructive fire; by friendship, friendship; and strife by

bitter strife.

And if the potentiality of all resided in every man, the teaching on

this point most forcibly has been, _Qui se cognoscit, in se omnia

cognoscit_--He who knows himself, knows all in himself--as Q. Fabius

Pictor tells us. And, therefore, the essential of moral and spiritual

training in ancient times was the attainment of Self-Knowledge--that is

to say, the attainment of the certitude that there is a divine nature

within every man, which is of infinite capacity to absorb universal

Wisdom; that, in brief, Man was _essentially_ one with Deity.

With Simon, as with the Hermetic philosophers of ancient Egypt, all

things were interrelated by correspondence, analogy, and similitude.

"As above, so below," is the teaching on the Smaragdine Table of

Hermes. Therefore, whatever happened to the divine Epinoia, the Supreme

Mother, among the Aeons, happened also to the human Spiritual Soul or

Monadic Essence, in its evolution through all stages of manifestation.

This Soul is shut into all forms and bodies, successively up to the

stage of man.

From one point of view this teaching has been conclusively proved by

Modern Science. The evolution of the external form has been traced

throughout all the kingdoms and is no longer in question. The ancient

teachers of evolution, though less exact in detail, were more accurate

in fact, in postulating a "something within" which alone could make the

external evolution of form of any intelligible purpose. The Spiritual

Soul--the Life, Consciousness, Spirit, Intelligence, whatever we may

choose to call it--was formless in itself, but ever assuming new forms

by a process called metempsychosis, metasomatosis, metangismos, etc.,

which in the human stage becomes reïncarnation, the rebirth or

Punarjanman of the Hindûs.

So much has been written on metempsychosis and reïncarnation of late

that it is hardly necessary to dwell on a now so familiar idea. In its

widest sense the whole process of nature is subject to this mode of

existence, and in its more restricted sense it is the path of pilgrimage

of the Soul in the desert of Matter. In treating of a philosophical

conception, which has already been completely established as far as its

"visible side" is concerned by the researches of Modern Science in the

field of evolution, it is a waste of time to obscure the main issue by a

rehashing of the superstitious belief that the human Soul might pass

back to the brute. It may be that this superstition arose from the

consideration that the body and lower vestures of the Soul were shed off

and gradually absorbed by the lower creation in the alchemical processes

of nature. This was the fate of the "Purgations" of the Soul, but the

Soul itself when once it had passed from bodies of the lower kingdoms,

to bodies in the man-stage, could not retrogress beyond the limits of

that human kingdom.

By a glance at the Diagram, and regarding it from the microcosmic point

of view, it is easy to see that the inner nature of man is more complex

than the elementary trichotomy of Body, Soul, and Spirit, might lead us

to suppose. Each plane of Being, for which the Soul has its own

appropriate Vesture, is generated from an "indivisible point," as Simon

called it, a zero-point, to use a term of modern Chemistry; six of which

are shown in the Diagram, and each plane of Being is bounded by such

zero-points, for they are points like that of the Circle whose centre is

everywhere and circumference nowhere.

To pass on to the soteriology of Simon. The general concept of this

presents no difficulty to the student of Eastern Religions. The idea

that the great teachers are Avatâras, incarnations, or descents, of the

Supreme Being, appearing on earth to aid mankind, is simple enough to

comprehend in itself, and would be open to little objection, were it not

for the theological dogmas and mythological legends that are wont to be

so busily woven round the lives of such teachers. In the present age it

is hardly necessary for us, with the experience of the past before our

eyes, to raise dissension as to whether such a manifestation is entirely

divine, or entirely human, or perfectly human and divine at one and the

same time, or neither or all of these.

Eastern philosophy, regarding not only the external phenomenal world as

ever-changing and impermanent, but also all appearance or

manifestation--no matter how subjective it may be to us now--as not the

one Truth in itself, which it claims alone to be without change, it is

easy to see the reason why the Gnostic Philosophers for the most part

held to Doceticism--that is to say that the body of a Saviour was not

the Saviour himself, but an appearance. The heat of polemical

controversy may have led to exaggerated views on both sides, but the

philosophical mind will not be distressed at the thought that the body

is an appearance or mask of the real man, and that it forms no part of

his eternal possession. None the less the body is real to us here, for

we all have bodies of a like nature, and appearances are real to

appearances. Yet this does not invalidate the further consideration that

there are other bodies, vestures, or vehicles of consciousness, besides

the gross physical "coat of skin," for the use of the spiritual man,

each being an "appearance" in comparison to the higher vehicle, which is

in its turn an "appearance" to that which is more subtle and less

material or substantial than itself.

Thus, in the descent from the Divine World, the Soul transforms itself,

or clothes itself in forms, or bodies, or vestures, which it weaves out

of its own substance, like to the Powers of the Worlds it passes

through, for every Soul has a different vehicle of consciousness for

every World or Plane.

But the doctrine of the Soter, or Saviour, does not apply until the

Christ-stage or consummation is reached. Following the idea of rebirth,

there is a spiritual life cycle, or life-thread, on which the various

earth-lives are strung, as beads on a necklace, each successive life

being purer and nobler, as the Soul gains control of matter, or the

driver control of the chariot and steeds that speed him through the

experiences of life. As the end of this great cycle approaches, an

earthly vehicle is evolved that can show forth the divine spirit in all

the fulness possible to this world or phase of evolution.

Now as the problem can be viewed from either the internal or external

point of view, we have the mystery of the Soul depicted both from the

side of the involution of spirit into matter and of the evolution of

matter into spirit. If, on the one hand, we insist too strongly on one

view, we shall only have a one-sided conception of the process; if, on

the other, we neglect one factor, we shall never solve the at present

unknown quantity of the equation. Thus the Soul is represented as the

"lost sheep" struggling in the meshes of the net of matter, passing from

body to body, and the Spirit is represented as descending, transforming

itself through the spheres, in order to finally rescue its Syzygy from

the bonds that are about her.

The Soul aspires to the Spirit and the Spirit takes thought for the

Soul; as the Simonians expressed it:

The male (Heaven, i.e., the Nous or Christ, or Spiritual Soul)

looks down from above and takes thought for its co-partner (or

Syzygy); while the Earth (i.e., the Epinoia or Jesus, or Human

Soul) from below receives from the Heaven the intellectual (in the

spiritual and philosophical sense, of course) fruits that come down

to it and are cognate with the Earth (i.e., of the same nature

essentially as Epinoia, who is essentially one with Nous).

When this mystery is represented dramatically, so to say, and

personified, these two aspects of the Soul are depicted as two persons.

Thus we have Simon and Helen, his favourite disciple, Krishna and

Arjuna, etc. In the Canonical Gospels the favourite disciple is said to

be John, and the women-disciples are placed well in the background.

In the Gnostic Gospels, however, the women-disciples are not so

ostracized, and the view taken by these early communities of

philosophical and mystical Christians throws much light on that

wonderful history of the Magdalene that has so touched the heart of

Christendom. For instance, in the _Pistis-Sophia_, the chief of all the

disciples, the most spiritual and intuitive, is Mary Magdalene. This is

not without significance when we remember the love of the Christ for

Mary "out of whom he had cast _seven_ devils."

The allegory is a striking one, and perfectly comprehensible to the

student of comparative religion. As there are seven Aeons in the

Spiritual World, seven principles or aspects of the Spiritual Soul, so

here on Earth, by analogy, there are seven lower aspects, or impure

reflections. As there are seven Cardinal Virtues, the Prajnâ-Pâramitâs,

or Perfections of Wisdom, of the Buddhists, so there are seven Cardinal

Vices, and these must be cast out by the spiritual will, before the

repentant Mary, or Human Soul, can be purified.

This is the mystery of the Helen, the "lost sheep." Then follows the

mystical marriage of the Lamb, the union of the Human and Spiritual Soul

in man, referred to so often in the Gospels and other mystical

scriptures.

Naturally the language used is symbolical, and has naught to do with

sex, in any sense. Woe unto him or her who takes these allegories of the

Soul as literal histories, for nothing but sorrow will follow such

materialization of divine mysteries. If Simon or his followers fell into

this error, they worked their own downfall, under the Great Law, as

surely do all who forge such bonds of matter for their own enslavement.

But with condemnation we have nothing to do; they alone who are without

sin have the _right_ to cast stones at the Magdalenes of this world; and

they who are truly without sin use their purity to cleanse their

fellows, and do not sully it with the stains of self-righteous

condemnation. We, ordinary men and women of the age, are all "lost

sheep," human souls struggling in ignorance; shall we then stone our

fellows because their theology has a different nomenclature to our own?

For man was the same in the past as he is to-day. The Human Soul has

ever the same hopes and fears, loves and hates, passions and

aspirations, no matter how the mere form of their expression differs.

That which is important is the attitude we hold to the forms with which

we are surrounded. To-day the form of our belief is changed; the fashion

of our dress is scientific and not allegorical, but are we any nearer

the realization that it is a dress and no more, and not the real

expression of the true man within?

Let us now take a brief glance at the Symbolical Tree of Life, which

plays so important a part in the Simonian Gnôsis. Not, however, that it

was peculiar to this system, for several of the schools use the same

symbology. For instance, in the _Pistis-Sophia_[130] the idea is

immensely expanded, and there is much said of an Aeonian Hierarchy

called the Five Trees. As this, however, may have been a later

development, let us turn to the ancient Hindû Shâstras, and select one

out of the many passages that could be adduced, descriptive of the

Ashvattha Tree, the Tree of Life, "the Ashvattha of golden wings," where

the bird-souls get their wings and fly away happily, as the

_Sanatsujátîya_ tells us. The passage we choose is from the _Bhagavad

Gîtâ_, that marvellous philosophical episode from the _Mahâbhârata_,

which from internal evidence, and at the very lowest estimate, must be

placed at a date anterior to Simon. At the beginning of the fifteenth

Adyâya we read:

They say the imperishable Ashvattha is with root above and branches

below, of which the sacred hymns are the leaves. Who knows this, he

is a knower of knowledge. Upwards and downwards stretch its

branches, expanded by the potencies (Gunas); the sense-objects are

its sprouts. Downwards, too, its roots are stretched, constraining

to action in the world of men. Here neither its form is

comprehended, nor its end, nor beginning, nor its support. Having

cut with the firm sword of detachment (_sc._ non-attachment to the

fruit of action) this Ashvattha, with its overgrown roots, then

should he (the disciple) search out that Supreme whither they who

come never return again, (with the thought) that now he is come to

that primal Being, whence the evolution of old was emanated.

For what is this "sword of detachment" but another aspect of the "fiery

sword" of Simon, which is turned about to guard the way to the Tree of

Life? This "sword" is our passions and desires, which now keep us from

the golden-leaved Tree of Life, whence we may find wings to carry us to

the "Father in Heaven." For once we have conquered Desire and turned it

into spiritual Will, it then becomes the "Sword of Knowledge"; and the

way to the Tree of Spiritual Life being gained, the purified Life

becomes the "Wings of the Great Bird" on which we mount, to be carried

to its Nest, where peace at last is found.

The simile of the Tree is used in many senses, not the least important

of which is that of the heavenly "vine" of the reïncarnating Soul, every

"life" of which is a branch. This explains Simon's citation of the

Logion so familiar to us in the _Gospel according to Luke_:

Every tree not bearing good fruit is cut down and cast into the

fire.

This also explains one of the inner meanings of the wonderful passage in

the _Gospel according to John_:

I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in

me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that

beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bear more fruit.[131]

For only the spiritual fruit of every life is harvested in the

"Store-house" of the Divine Soul; the rest is shed off to be purified in

the "Fire" of earthly existence.

Into the correspondence between the world-process of Nature, and that

which takes place in the womb of mortal woman, it will not be necessary

to enter at length. No doubt Simon taught many other correspondences

between the processes of Cosmic Nature and Microcosmic Man, but what

were the details of this teaching we can in no way be certain. Simon

may have made mistakes in physiology, according to our present

knowledge, but with the evidence before us all we can do is to suspend

our judgment. For in the first place, we do not know that he has been

correctly reported by his patristic antagonists, and, in the second, we

are even yet too ignorant of the process of the nourishment of the

foetus to pronounce any _ex cathedrâ_ statement. In any case Simon's

explanation is more in agreement with Modern Science than the generality

of the phantasies on scientific subjects to which the uninstructed piety

of the early Fathers so readily lent itself. As to whether the

Initiated of the ancients did or did not know of the circulation of the

blood and the functions of the arterial system, we must remain in doubt,

for both their well known method of concealing their knowledge and also

the absence of texts which may yet be discovered by the industry of

modern exploration teach us to hold our judgment in suspense.

Again, seeing the importance which the symbolical Tree played in the

Simonian System, it may be that there was an esoteric teaching in the

school, which pointed out correspondences in the human body for mystical

purposes, as has been the custom for long ages in India in the Science

of Yoga. In the human body are _at least_ two "Trees," the nervous, and

vascular systems. The former has its "root" above in the cerebrum, the

latter has its roots in the heart. Along the trunks and branches run

currents of "nervous ether" and "life" respectively, and the Science of

Yoga teaches its disciples to use both of these forces for mystical

purposes. It is highly probable also that the Gnostics taught the same

processes to their pupils, as we know for a fact that the Neo-Platonists

inculcated like practices. From these considerations, then, it may be

supposed that Simon was not so ignorant of the real laws of the

circulation of the blood as might otherwise be imagined; and as to the

nourishment of the embryo, modern authorities are at loggerheads, the

majority, however, inclining to the opinion of Simon, that the foetus

is nourished through the umbilical cord.[132]

The last point of importance to detain us, before passing on to a notice

on the magical practices ascribed to Simon, is the allegorical use made

by the Simonians of Scripture. Here again we have little to do with the

details reported, but only with the idea. It was a common belief of the

sages of antiquity that the mythological part of the sacred writings of

the nations were to be understood in an allegorical fashion. Not to

speak of India, we have the Neo-Platonic School with its analogetical

methods of interpretation, and the mention of a work of Porphyry in

which an allegorical interpretation of the _Iliad_ was attempted.

Allegorical shows of a similar nature also were enacted in the Lesser

Mysteries and explained in the Greater, as Julian tells us in the

_Mother of the Gods_,[133] and Plutarch on the _Cessation of

Oracles_.[134]

Much evidence could be adduced that this was a widespread idea held by

the learned of antiquity, but space does not here allow a full

treatment of the subject. What is important to note is that Simon

claimed this as a method of his School, and therefore, in dealing with

his system, we cannot leave out so important a factor, and persist in

taking allegorical and symbolical expressions as literal teachings. We

may say that the method is misleading and has led to much superstition

among the ignorant, but we have no right to criticize the literal and

historical meaning of an allegory, and then fancy that we have

criticized the doctrine it enshrines. This has been the error of all

rationalistic critics of the world bibles. They have wilfully set on one

side the whole method of ancient religious teaching, and taken as

literal history and narrative what was essentially allegorical and

symbolical. Perhaps the reason for this may be in the fact that wherever

religion decays and ignorance spreads herself, there the symbolical and

allegorical is materialized into the historical and literal. The spirit

is forgotten, the letter is deified. Hence the reäction of the

rationalistic critic against the materialism and literalism of sacred

verities. Nevertheless, such criticism does not go deep enough to affect

the real truths of religion and the convictions of the human soul, any

more than an aesthetic criticism on the shape of the Roman letters and

Arabic figures can affect the truth of an algebraical formula.

Rationalistic criticism may stir people from literalism and dogmatic

crystallization, in fact it has done much in this way, but it does not

reach the hidden doctrines.

Now Simon contended that many of the narrations of Scripture were

allegorical, and opposed those who held to the dead-letter

interpretation. To the student of comparative religion, it is difficult

to see what is so highly blameworthy in this. On the contrary, this view

is so worthy of praise, that it deserves to be widely adopted to-day, at

the latter end of the nineteenth century. To understand antiquity, we

must follow the methods of the wise among the ancients, and the method

of allegory and parable was the manner of teaching of the great Masters

of the past.

But supposing we grant this, and admit that all Scriptures possess an

inner meaning and lend themselves to interpretation on every plane of

being and thought, who is to decide whether any particular

interpretation is just or no? Already we have writers arising, giving

diametrically opposite interpretations of the same mystical narrative,

and though this may be an advance on bald physical literalism, it is by

no means encouraging to the instructed and philosophical mind.

If the Deity is no respecter of persons, times, or nations, and if no

age is left without witness of the Divine, it would seem to be in

accordance with the fitness of things that all religions in their purity

are one in essence, no matter how overgrown with error they may have

become through the ignorance of man. If, again, the root of true

Religion is one, and the nature of the Soul and of the inner

constitution of things is identical in all climes and times, as far as

its _main features_ are concerned, no matter what terminology, allegory,

and symbology may be employed to describe it; and not only this, but if

it be true that such subjective things are as potent facts in human

consciousness as any that exist, as indeed is evidenced by the

unrivalled influence such things have had on human hearts and actions

throughout the history of the world--then we must consider that an

interpretation that fits only one system and is found entirely

unsuitable to the rest, is no part of universal religion, and is due

rather to the ingenuity of the interpreter than to a discovery of any

law of subjective nature. The method of comparative religion alone can

give us any certainty of correct interpretation, and a refusal to

institute such a comparison should invalidate the reliability of all

such enquiries.

Now Simon is reported to have endeavoured to find an inner meaning in

scriptural narratives and mythologies, and against this method we can

have nothing to say; it is only when a man twists the interpretation to

suit his own prejudices that danger arises. Simon, however, is shown to

have appealed to the various sacred literatures known in his time, an

eclectic and theosophical method, and one that cannot very well be

longer set on one side even in our own days.

The primitive church was not so forgetful of symbology as are the

majority of the Christian faith to-day. One of the commonest

representations of primitive Christian art was that of the "Four

Rivers." As the Rev. Professor Cheetham tells us:

We find it repeated over and over again in the catacombs, either in

frescoes or in the sculptured ornaments of sarcophagi, and

sometimes on the bottoms of glass cups which have been discovered

therein.[135]

The interpretations given by the early divines were many and various; in

nearly every case, however, it was an interpretation which applied to

the Christian system alone, and accentuated external differences. Little

attempt was made to find an interpretation in nature, either objective

or subjective, or in man. Simon, at any rate, made the attempt--an

effort to broaden out into a universal system applying to all men at all

times. This is also the real spirit of pure Christianity which is so

often over-clouded by theological partisanship. A true interpretation

must stand the test of not only religious aspiration, but also

philosophical thought and scientific observation.

Nor again should we find cause to grieve at an attempted interpretation

of the Trojan Horse, that was fabricated by the advice of Athena

(Minerva-Epinoia), for did not George Stanley Faber, in the early years

of this century, labour with much learning to prove its identity with

the Ark. True he only turned similar myths into the terms of one myth

and got no further, but that was an advance on his immediate

predecessors. Simon, however, had centuries before gone further than

Faber, as far as theory is concerned, by seeking an interpretation in

nature. But, in his turn, as far as our records go, he only attempted

the interpretation of one aspect of this graphic symbol, saying that it

typified "ignorance." An interpretation, however, to be complete should

cover all planes of consciousness and being from the physical human

plane to the divine cosmic. The Ark floating on the Waters of the Deluge

and containing the Germs of Life, the Mundane Egg in the Waters of

Space, and the Mare with her freight of armed warriors, all typify a

great fact in nature, which may be studied scientifically in the

development of the germ-cell, and ethically by analogy, as the egg of

ignorance, the germs in which are, from the lower aspect, our own evil

passions.

In speaking of such allegories and tracing the correspondences between

certain symbologies and the natural facts of embryology, Simon speaks of

the "cave" which plays so important a part in so many religious

allegories. As the child is born in a "cave," so the "new man" is also

born in a "cave," and all the Saviours are so recorded to have been born

in their birth legends. The Mysteries of antiquity were for the most

part solemnized in caves, or rock-cut temples. The Epoptae deemed such

caverns as symbols both of the physical world and Hades or the Unseen

World, which surrounds every child of man. Into such a cave, in the

middle of the Ocean, Cronus shut his children, as Porphyry[136] tells

us. It was called by the name Petra, or Rock, and from such a Rock

Mithras is said to have been born.[137]

Faber endeavours to identify this symbolical cave with the Ark,[138]

which may be permissible from one aspect, as the womb of mother nature

and of the human mother correspond analogically.

In the "new birth" of the mysteries, the Souls were typified as bees

born from the body of an ox, for they were to gather the honey of

wisdom, and were born from the now dead body of their lower natures. In

the cave were two doors, one for immortals, the other for mortals. In

this connection the cave is the psychic womb that surrounds every man,

of which Nicodemus displays such ignorance in the Gospels. It is the

microcosmic Middle Distance; by one door the Lower Soul enters, and

uniting with its immortal consort, who descends through the door of the

immortals, becomes immortal.

The cavern is overshadowed by an olive tree--again the Tree of Life to

which we have referred above--on the branches of which the doves rest,

and bring back the leaves to the ark of the body and the prisoner within

it.

But space does not permit us to pursue further this interesting subject,

which requires an entire treatise by itself, or even a series of

volumes. Enough, however, has been said to show that the method of

interpretation employed by Simon is not without interest and profit, and

that the tolerant spirit of to-day which animates the best minds and

hearts in Christendom will find no reason to mete out to Simon wholesale

condemnation on this score.

There are also many other points of interest that could be elaborated

upon, in the fragments of the system we are reviewing, but as my task is

in the form of an essay, and not an exhaustive work, I must be content

to pass them by for the present, and to hurry on to a few words on that

strange and misunderstood subject, commonly known as Magic.

What Magic, the "Great Art" of the ancients, was in reality is now as

difficult to discover as is the true Religion that underlies all the

great religions of the world. It was an art, a practice, the Great and

Supreme Art of the most Sacred Science of God, the Universe and Man. It

was and it is all this in its highest sense, and its method was what is

now called "creation." As the Aeons imitated the Boundless Power and

emanated or created in their turn, so could man imitate the Aeons and

emanate or create in his turn. But "creation" is not generation, it is a

work of the "mind," in the highest sense of the word. By purification

and aspiration, by prayer and fasting, man had to make his mind

harmonious with the Great Mind of the Universe, and so by imitation

create pure vehicles whereby his consciousness could be carried in

every direction of the Universe. Such spiritual operations required the

greatest purity and piety, real purity and true piety, without disguise

or subterfuge, for man had to face himself and his God, before whom no

disguise was possible. The most secret motives, the most hidden desires,

were revealed by the stern self-discipline to which the Adepts of the

Science subjected themselves.

But as in all things here below, so with the Art of Magic, it was

two-fold. Above I have only spoken of the bright side of it, the path

along which the World-Saviours have trodden, for no one can gain

entrance to the path of self-sacrifice and compassion unless his heart

burns with love for all that lives, and unless he treads the way of

wisdom only in order that he may become that Path itself for the

salvation of the race. But there is the other side; knowledge is

knowledge irrespective of the use to which it may be put. The sword of

knowledge is two-edged, as remarked above, and may be put to good or

evil use, according to the selfishness or unselfishness of the

possessor.

But _corruptio optimi pessima_, and as the employment of wisdom for the

benefit of mankind--as, for instance, curing the sick, physically and

morally--is the highest, so the use of any abnormal power for the

advantage of self is the vilest sin that man can commit.

There are strange analogies in Nature, and the higher the spiritual, the

lower the corresponding material process; so that we find in the history

of magic--perhaps the longest history in the world--extremes ever

meeting. Abuse of spiritual powers, and the vilest physical processes,

noxious, fantastic, and pestilential, are recorded in the pages of

so-called magical literature, but such foul deeds are no more real Magic

than are the horrors of religious fanaticism the outcome of true

Mohammedanism or Christianity. This is the abuse, the superstition, the

degeneration of all that is good and true, rendered all the more vile

because it pertains to denser planes of matter than even the physical.

It is a strange thing that the highest should pair with the lowest where

man is concerned, but it ever remains true that the higher we climb the

lower we may fall.

Man is much the same in nature at all times, and though the Art was

practised in its purity by the great World-Teachers and their immediate

followers, whether we call it by the name Magic or no, it ever fell

into abuse and degeneracy owing to the ingrained ignorance and

selfishness of man. Thus the Deity and Gods or Daemons of one nation

became the Devil and Demons of another; the names were changed, the

facts remained the same. For if we are to reject all such things as

superstition, hallucination, and what not, the good must go with the

bad. But facts, whether good or bad, are still facts, and man is still

man, no matter how he changes the fashion of his belief. The followers

of the World-Teachers cannot hold to the so-called "miracles" of their

respective Masters and reject all others as false in fact, no matter

from what source they may believe they emanate. In nature there can be

nothing supernatural, and as man stands mid-way between the divine and

infernal, if we accept the energizing of the one side of his nature, we

must also accept that of the other. Both are founded on nature and

science, both are under law and order.

The great Master of Christendom is reported to have told his disciples

that if they had but faith they should do greater works than even he had

done. Either this was false or else the followers have been false to

their Teacher. There is no escape from the dilemma. And such "works" are

to be wrought by divine Magic alone, or if the term be disliked, by

whatever name the great Science of the Soul and Divine things may be

called.

For the last two hundred years or so it has been the fashion to deride

all such matters, perhaps owing to a reäction against over-credulity on

the part of those who held to the letter of the law and forgot its

spirit; but to-day it is no longer possible to entirely set aside this

all-important part of man's nature, and it now calls for as strict a

scientific treatment as the facts of the physical universe have been

subjected to.

Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism and Psychical Research, are the

cloud no bigger than a man's hand that is forcing the facts of Magic

again on the attention of both the theological and scientific world.

Hypnotism and Psychical Research are already becoming respectable and

attracting the attention of the generality of men of science and of our

clergy. Spiritualism and Mesmerism are still tabooed, but wait their

turn for popular recognition, having already been recognized by pioneers

distinguished in science and other professions.

Of course I speak only of the facts of these arts, I do not speak of the

theories put forward.

All these processes are in the very outermost court of the Temple of

True Magic, even if they are not outside the precinct. But they are

sufficient for our purpose, and should make the serious thinker and

unprejudiced enquirer pause before pronouncing the words, superstition

and hallucination, in too confident a tone, for he now must see the

necessity of having a clear idea of what he means by the terms.

It is not uncommon of late to hear the superficially instructed setting

down everything to "suggestion," a word they have picked up from modern

hypnotic research, or "telepathy," a name invented by psychical

research--the ideas being as old as the world--forgetting that their

mind remains in precisely the same attitude with regard to such matters

as it was in previously when they utterly denied the possibility of

suggestion and telepathy. But to the earnest and patient student

hypnotism and the rest are but the public reäppearance of what has

always existed in spite of the denial of two hundred years or so, and

instead of covering the whole ground is but the forward spray from the

returning wave of psychism which will sweep the nations off their feet

and moral balance, if they will not turn to the experience of the past

and gain strength to withstand the inrush.

The higher forms of all these things, in the Western World, should have

now been in the hands of the ministers of the Church, in which case we

should not have had the reäppearance of such powers in the hands of

vulgar stage exhibitions and mercenary public mediumship.

But so it is; and in vain is it any longer to raise the cry of fraud and

hallucination on the one hand and of the devil on the other. This is a

mere shirking of responsibility, and nothing but a reasonable

investigation and an insistence on the highest ideals of life will help

humanity.

I do not intend to enter into any review of the "wonders" attributed to

Simon, neither to deny them as hallucinations, nor attribute them to the

devil, nor explain them away by "suggestion." As a matter of fact we do

not even know whether Simon did or pretended to do any of the precise

things mentioned. All we are competent to decide is the general

question, viz., that any use of abnormal power is pernicious if done for

a personal motive, and will assuredly, sooner or later, react on the

doer.

Here and there in the patristic accounts we light on a fact worthy of

consideration, as, for example, when Simon is reported to have denied

that the real soul of a boy could be exorcised, and said that it was

only a daemon, in this case a sub-human intelligence or elemental, as

the Mediaeval Kabalists called them. Again the Simonians are said to have

expelled any from their Mysteries who worshipped the statues of Zeus or

Athena as being representatives of Simon and Helen; thus showing that

they were symbolical figures for some purpose other than ordinary

worship; and probably the sect in its purity possessed a body of

teaching which threw light on many of the religious practices of the

times, and gave them a rational interpretation, quite at variance with

the fantastic diabolism which the Fathers have so loudly charged against

them.

The legends of magic are the same in all countries, fantastic enough to

us in the nineteenth century, in all conscience, and most probably

exaggerated out of all correct resemblance to facts by the excited

imagination of the legend-tellers, but still it is not all imagination,

and after sifting out even ninety-nine per cent of rubbish, the residue

that remains is such vast evidence to the main facts that it is fairly

overwhelming, and deserves the investigation of every honest student.

But the study is beset with great difficulty, and if left in the hands

of untrained thinkers, as are the majority of those who are interested

in such matters in the present day, will only result in a new phase of

credulity and superstition. And such a disastrous state of affairs will

be the distinct fault of the leaders of thought in the religious,

philosophical, and scientific world, if they refuse the task which is

naturally theirs, and if they are untrue to the responsibility of their

position as the directors, guardians, and adjusters of the popular mind.

Denial is useless, mere condemnation is of small value, explanation

alone will meet the difficulty.

Thus when we are brought face to face with the recital of magical

wonders as attributed to Simon in the patristic legends, it is not

sufficient to sweep them on one side and ticket them with the

contemptuous label of "superstition." We must recognize that whether or

not these things were actually done by Simon, the ancient world both

Pagan and Christian firmly believed in their reality, and that if our

only attitude towards them is one of blank denial, we include in that

denial the possibility of the so-called "miracles" of Christianity and

other great religions, and therewith invalidate one of the most

important factors of religious thought and history. That the present

attitude of denial is owing to the absurd explanation of the phenomena

given by the majority of the ancient worthies, is easily admissible, but

this is no reason why the denial of the possibilities of the existence

of such things should be logical or scientific.

As to the wonders ascribed to Simon, though extraordinary, they are

puerile compared to the ideals of the truly religious mind, and if

Simon used such marvels as proofs of the truth of his doctrine, he

unduly took advantage of the ignorance of the populace and was untrue to

his better nature.

Again, setting aside all historical criticism, if Simon, as the _Acts_

report, thought to purchase spiritual powers with money, or that those

who were really in possession of such powers would ever sell them, we

can understand the righteous indignation of the apostles, though we

cannot understand their cursing a brother-man. The view of the Christian

writer on this point is a true one, but the dogma that every operation

which is not done in the name of the particular Master of Christendom is

of the Devil--or, to avoid personifications, is evil--can hardly find

favour with those who believe in the brotherhood of the whole race and

that Deity is one, no matter under what form worshipped.

Finally, to sum up the matter, we have cited our authorities, and

reviewed them, and then endeavoured to sift out what is good from the

heap, leaving the rubbish to its fate. Removed as we are by so many

centuries from the fierce strife of religious controversy which so

deeply marked the rise of Christianity, we can view the matter with

impartiality and seek to redress the errors that are patent both on the

side of orthodoxy and of heterodoxy. It is true we cannot be free of the

past, but it is also true that to identify ourselves with the hates and

strifes of the ancients, is merely to retrogress from the path of

progress. On the contrary, our duty should be to identify ourselves with

all that is good and beautiful and true in the past, and so gleaning it

together, bind it into a sheaf of corn that, when ground in the mills of

common-sense and practical experience, may feed the millions of every

denomination who for the most part are starving on the unsatisfying

husks of crude dogmatism. There is no need for a new revelation, in

whatever sense the word is understood, but there is every need for an

explanation of the old revelations and the undeniable facts of human

experience. If the Augean stables of the materialism that is so

prevalent in the religion, philosophy and science of to-day, are to be

cleansed, the spiritual sources of the world-religions can alone be

effectual for their cleansing, but these are at present hidden by the

rocks and overgrowth of dogma and ignorance. And this overgrowth can

only be removed by explanation and investigation, and each who works at

the task is, consciously or unconsciously, in the train of the Hercules

who is pioneering the future of humanity.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 96: _Julius Caesar_, III. ii. 106-8.]

[Footnote 97: _Op. cit._ i. 4. Compare the Diagram and explanation of

the Middle Distance _infra_. The Moon is the "Lord" of the lower plane

of the Middle Distance, the Astral Light of the medieval Kabalists. This

is a doctrine common to the Hermetic, Vedântic, and many other schools

of Antiquity.]

[Footnote 98: xi. 37.]

[Footnote 99: _Philos._, ix. 10.]

[Footnote 100: _Zohar_, i. 50_b_, Amsterdam and Brody Editions: quoted

in Isaac Myer's _Qabbalah_, pp. 376, 377.]

[Footnote 101: See Cory's _Ancient Fragments_, 2nd ed.; not the reëdited

third edition, which is no longer Cory's work.]

[Footnote 102: [Greek: eisi panta puros henos ekgegaota]--_Psell.

24--Plet. 30._]

[Footnote 103: _Proc. in Theol._ 333--_in Tim._ 157.]

[Footnote 104: [Greek: paegaious krataeras]--I have ventured the above

translation for this difficult combination from the meaning of the term

[Greek: paegae], found elsewhere in the Oracles, in the metaphorical

sense of "source" (compare also Plato, _Phaed._ 245 C., 856 D., [Greek:

paegae kai archae chinaeseos]--"the source and beginning of motion"),

and also from the meaning of [Greek: krataer] (_cratêr_), as "a

cup-shaped hollow."

The idea of this Crater is interestingly exemplified in the Twelfth Book

of Hermes Trismegistus, called "His Crater, or Monas," as follows:

"10. _Tat._ But wherefore, Father, did not God distribute the Mind to

all men?

"11. _Herm._ Because it pleased him, O Son, to set that in the middle

among all souls, as a reward to strive for.

"12. _Tat._ And where hath he set it?

"13. _Herm._ Filling a large Cup or Bowl (Crater) therewith, he sent it

down, giving also a Cryer or Proclaimer.

"14. And he commanded him to proclaim these things to the souls of men.

"15. Dip and wash thyself, thou that art able, in this Cup or Bowl: Thou

that believeth that thou shalt return to him that sent this cup; thou

that acknowledgest whereunto thou wert made.

"16. As many, therefore, as understood the Proclamation, and were

_baptized_, or dowsed into the _Mind_, these were made partakers of

knowledge, and became perfect men, receiving the Mind."

This striking passage explains the mystic "Baptism of Fire," or Mind,

whereby man became one with his Divine Monas, which is indeed his

"Mother Vortex" or Source.]

[Footnote 105: _Proc. in Parm._]

[Footnote 106: _Proc. in Theol. Plat._, 171, 172.]

[Footnote 107: _Proc. in Tim._, 167.]

[Footnote 108: _Proc. in Theol._, 321.]

[Footnote 109: _Proc. in Crat._]

[Footnote 110: _Dionys._, xiv.]

[Footnote 111: _Praep. Evan._, i. 10.]

[Footnote 112: The names of these seven flames of the Fire, with their

surface translations, are as follows: Kâlî, Dark-blue; Karâlî, Terrible;

Mano-javâ, Swift as Thought; Su-lohitâ, Deep-red colour;

Su-dhûmra-varnâ, Deep-purple colour; Ugrâ or Sphulinginî, Hot,

Passionate, or Sparkling; Pradîptâ, Shining, Clear. These are the

literal meanings; the mystic meanings are very different, and among

other things denote the septenary prismatic colours and other

septenaries in nature.]

[Footnote 113: _Hibbert lectures_, 1887: "Lecture on the Origin and

Growth of Religion as illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient

Babylonians," pp. 179, 180.]

[Footnote 114: See Schwartze's _Pistis-Sophia_ and Amélineau's _Notice

sur le Papyrus Gnostique Bruce_.]

[Footnote 115: _De Mysteriis Liber_, vii. 4.]

[Footnote 116: Compare also _Herodot._ ii, 54--[Greek: phonae

anthropaeiae].]

[Footnote 117: _Lib._ v.]

[Footnote 118: _Psel._ 7.]

[Footnote 119: _Psel. Schol. in Orac. Magic_, p. 70.]

[Footnote 120: Theodoret gives [Greek: ennoia].]

[Footnote 121: A. Aphthartos Morphê. B. Nous tôn Holôn. c. Epinoia

Megalê. D. Eikôn. a. Nous. b. Phônê. c. Logismos. d. Enthumêsis. e.

Onoma. f. Epinoia.]

[Footnote 122: xi. 47.]

[Footnote 123: _Ibid._, xi. 18, 38.]

[Footnote 124: Wilson's Trans. i. pp. 55 _et seqq._]

[Footnote 125: Prabhavâpyaya: Pra-bhava=the forth-being or origin, and

Apy-aya=the return or reabsorption. It is the same idea as the Simonian

Treasure-house.]

[Footnote 126: Ayana simply means "moving."]

[Footnote 127: _Mânava-Dharma Shâstra_, i. 10.]

[Footnote 128: _Op. cit._, iv. 251.]

[Footnote 129: 14.]

[Footnote 130: This Gnostic gospel, together with the treatises

entitled, _The Book of the Gnoses of the Invisible_ and _The Book of the

Great Logos in each Mystery_ (the Bruce MSS.), is especially referred

to, as, with the exception of the _Codex Nazaraeus_, being the only

Gnostic works remaining to us. All else comes from the writings of the

Fathers.]

[Footnote 131: xv, 1, 2]

[Footnote 132: The most advanced theory, however, is that the foetus

derives nourishment from the amniotic fluid, and Dr. Jerome A. Anderson

sums up his highly interesting paper on the "Nutrition of the Foetus" in

the _American Journal of Obstetrics_, Vol. XXI, July, 1888, as follows:

"To briefly sum up the facts supporting amniotic nutrition:

"1st. The constant presence of nutritive substances in the amniotic

fluid during the whole period of gestation.

"2nd. The certainty of the absorption by a growing, almost skinless,

foetus of any nutritive material in which it is constantly bathed.

"3rd. The permeability of the digestive tract at an early period, and

the necessary entrance therein, according to the laws of hydrostatics,

of the albuminous amniotic fluid.

"4th. The presence of, as it seems to me, _bonâ fide_ débris of

digestion, or meconium, in the lower intestine.

"5th. The presence of urine in the bladder, and bile in the upper

intestine; their normal locations.

"6th. The mechanical difficulties opposing direct nutrition through the

placenta, and the impossibility of nourishment by this method during the

early stages of embryonic life previous to the formation of the placenta

or umbilical vesicle.

"7th. The evident material source of the fluid, as shown by the

hydrorrheas of pregnancy, as well as in the exhaustion the mother

experiences, in some cases, at least, under its loss and rapid

reproduction.

"8th. The entire absence during gestation of any trace of the placenta

in certain animals, notably the salamander."]

[Footnote 133: Oratio V, _In Matrem Deorum_.]

[Footnote 134: _De Defectu Oraculorum_, xxi.]

[Footnote 135: _Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_, art. "Four Rivers,

The."]

[Footnote 136: _The Homeric Cave of Nymphs_, [Greek: peri tou en

Odusseia Numphon antrou].]

[Footnote 137: [Greek: legousin ek petras gegennaesthai auton]--Just.

Mart. _Dial. cum. Tryph._]

[Footnote 138: _Cabiri_, ii, 363.]