Comte de Gabalis: Discourse III

to acknowledge as manifesting through gradations of His spiritual creatures LXVI, and they prefer to manufac ture a ladder to descend into nothingness. Instead of mounting towards heaven they delve into the earth, ;ày. and instead of seeking in Beings superior to man 'the cause if those transports which lift him above himself

"Such is the misery of man when possessed by the spirit of contradiction and the disposition to think differently to others. Instead of achieving his ends he becomes involved and fettered. These intellectual libertines do not wish to make man subject to substances less material than himself, and yet they make him subject to an exhalation: and disregarding the absence of any connection whatever between this chimerical vapour and the soul of man, between this emanation and future events, between this frivolous cause and these miraculous effects, the mere singularity of their theories is to them sufficient evidence of their reasonableness. They are content to deny the existence of spirits and to assume the rôle of free thinkers."

"Ah! my Son," said he, "’tis the bane of commonsense and the stumbling block of the greatest minds. Aristotle, great logician though he was, could not avoid the snare into which the passion for singularity leads those whom it unbalances as violently as it did him. He could not, I say, avod becoming entangled and contradicting himself. In is hook on 'The Generation of Animals' LXVII and in his 'Ethics,' he says that the

LXVIII that the matter of which we are composed cannot be the source of our spiritual thoughts, how can youexpect a weak exhalation to be the source of sublime thought and of those soaring flights of spirit achieved by those who gave forth the Pythian Oracles? See, my child, how forcibly this genius contradicts himself, and how his craving for singularity leads him astray."

"You reason very logically, Sir," said I, enchanted to perceive that he was talking excellent sense, and hoping that his madness would not prove incurable, "God willing--"

"Plutarch, LXIX so sound in other respects," he said, interrupting me, "moves me to pity in his dialogue concerning the 'Cessation of the Oracles.' Convincing objections are raised which he in no wise refutes. Why does he not answer what is said to him, namely, that it is the exhalation which causes these transports, all those who approach the prophetic Tripod would be seized with enthusiasm and not merely a single maiden who moreover must be virgin. But how can this vapour articulate cries through the abdomen? Besides this exhalation

"I wonder that Pomponatius, Lucilius and the other Libertines should borrow this idea from Plutarch and cast aside his explanation. He spoke more judiciously than Cicero and Aristotle, for he was a man of great good sense and, not knowing what conclusion to draw from all these Oracles, after tedious irresolution, he decided that this exhalation, which he believed issued from the earth, was a most divine spirit. Thus he ascribed to divinity the extraordinary agitations and illuminations of the Priestesses of Apollo LXX. 'This divinatory vapour is a breath and a most divine and most holy spirit,' said he."

"Pomponatius, Lucilius and modern atheists do not adapt themselves readily to fashions of speech which imply divinity. 'These exhalations', say they, 'were of the nature of those vapours which infect splenetics who speak languages they do not understand.' Fernelius refutes these impieties rather well, by proving that bile which is a peccant humour cannot cause that diversity of tongues which is one of the most marvellous

"Then to whom should one attribute them? " said I, "I have long awaited this Cabalistic secret."

"Plutarch LXXI has very well indicated it," he said, "and he would have been wise had he let matters rest there. Since this irregular method of expressing one's opinion by means of an unseemly organ was neither solemn enough nor sufficiently worthy of the majesty of the gods, says that Pagan, and since the sayings of the Oracles surpassed the powers of the soul of man, they have rendered great service to Philosophy, for they have established the existence of mortal beings between the gods and man to whom one can ascribe all that surpasses human weakness yet falls short of divine greatness."

"This is the opinion held in every ancient philosophy. The Platonists and the Pythagoreans took it from the Egyptians, and the latter from Joseph the A Saviour, and from the Hebrews who dwelt in Egypt before the crossing of the Red Sea. The Hebrews used to call these beings who are between the Angels and man Sadaim, and the Greeks, transposing the

"Now, Sir, I think you have returned again to your Sylphs."

for that communion: and that Jew Micah LXXII, who complains in the Book of Judges that his gods have been taken from him, only laments the loss of the little image through which the Sylphs used to converse with him. The gods which Rachel stole from her father were also Teraphim. Neither Micah nor Laban are reproved for idolatry, and Jacob would have taken care not to live for fourteen years with an idolater, nor to marry his daughter. It was only a commerce with Sylphs; and tradition tells us that the Synagoge considered such commerce permissible, and that the image belonging to David's wife was but the Teraphim by virtue of which she conversed with the Elementary Peoples: for you can well imagine that the Prophet after God's own heart would not have tolerated idolatry

"These Elementary Nations, so long as God neglected the salvation of the world in punishment for the first sin, used to take pleasure in explaining to men through the Oracles what they knew of God, in teaching them how to live morally, and in giving them most wise and most profitable counsels, such as are seen in great number in Plutarch and in all historians. As soon as God took pity on mankind and was willing Himself to become their Teacher, these little Masters withdrew. Hence the silence of the Oracles."

"Always? " he replied. " Ah! not always. Did the Sylphid speak very obscurely who appeared to that Roman in Asia LXXIII and predicted to him that he would one day return to Rome with the dignity of Proconsul?

LXXIV that his indiscretion and incontinence would be punished by men dressed and armed exactly as they were, and that those black men would take possession of Spain and rule there for many a year. Could anything have been more explicit, and was not the prophecy verified by the event in that selfsame year? For did not the Moors come to dethrone that effeminate king? You know the story, and you must admit that the Devil, who since the reign of the Messiah does not dispose of empires, could not have been the author of this Oracle: and that it was undoubtedly some great Cabalist who had it from one of the most learned Salamanders. Since the Salamanders love chastity exceedingly, they willingly make known to us the misfortunes which must befall mankind for lack of that virtue."

"But, Sir," said I to him, "do you consider that heteroclitic organ which they made use of for the preaching of their ethics very chaste and altogether in keeping with Cabalistic modesty?"

"Ah!" said the Comte, smiling, "Your imagination is shocked, and you fail to perceive the physical reason which causes the flaming Salamander naturally to de-

light in the most igneous places and to be attracted by--" LXXV

"I understand, I understand," I interrupted, "Do

"As for the obscurity of some Oracles which you dub knavery," he went on seriously, "are not shadows the usual cloak of Truth? Is not God pleased to hide Himself in their sombre veil? And is not Holy Writ, that perpetual Oracle which He has left to His children, enveloped in an adorable obscurity which confounds and bewilders the proud even as its Light guides the humble?"

"If this be your only difficulty, my Son, I advise you not to postpone entering into communion with the Elementary Peoples. You will find them very sincere folk, learned, benevolent and God-fearing. I am of opinion that you should begin with the Salamanders, for you have Mars in mid-heaven in your horoscope, which signifies that there is a great deal of fire in all your actions. And as for marriage, I rather think that you should choose a Sylphid. You would be happier with her than with any of the others, for you have Jupiter in the ascendant with Venus in sextile. Now Jupiter presides over the Air and the Peoples of the Air. You must, however, consult your own heart in this matter for, as you will one day see, a Sage governs himself by the interior stars, and the stars of the exterior heaven but serve to give him a more certain knowledge of the aspects of the stars of that interior heaven LXXVI which is in every creature. Thus it rests with you to tell me what your

"Sir," I replied, "in my opinion this affair demands a little consultation."

"I esteem you for that answer," said he, laying his hand on my shoulder. "Consult maturely as to this affair, and above all, with him who is called in an eminent degree the Angel of the Grand Council LXXVII. Go, and devote yourself to prayer, and I shall be at your house at two o'clock to-morrow afternoon."

We came back to Paris, and on the way I led him once more to discourse against atheists and libertines. I have never heard arguments so well supported by reason, nor such sublime and subtle ideas advanced for the existence of God, and against the blindness of those who go through life without wholly surrendering themselves to a serious and continual worship
of Him to whom we owe the gift and preservation of our being. I was surprised at
the character of this man, and I could
not comprehend how it was
possible for him to be at
once so strong, and so
weak, so
admirable,
yet so
ridiculous
.

Footnotes

69:XLVIII 71:XLIX

73:L II PAGE 203. COMPARE MUHAMMED AND THE MUHAMMEDANS. NOTE R, COMMENTARY CONTINUED.

73:LI KING SAUL. NOTE S, COMMENTARY CONTINUED.

75:LII 75:LIII THE ORACLE OF DODONA. NOTE T, COMMENTARY CONTINUED.

75:LIV MAIDENS OF GAUL.--Sena being situate in the Britishe Sea, against the countrie of the Osis-Myes, is renowned with the Oracle of the God of the Galles, whose Vow-esses in number nine, are hallowed to continuall Virginitie. They call them Gallicens, and are of opinion, that through the singuler wisdom wherewith they are endued, they rayse the seas and winds with their charmes, and transforme themselves into what. Beastes theywill, and and heale such diseases as to others are incurable, knowe thinges to come and prophesie of them, but not unto any other than such as sayle thither for the nonce, and come of set purpose to demaund Counsell of them.

THE RARE AND SINGULER WORK OF POMPONIUS MELA, THAT EXCELLENT AND WORTHY COSMOGRAPHER. TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY ARTHUR GOLDING, GENTLEMAN, LONDON, 1590. BOOK., III., CHAPTER vi.

77:LV MASTER OF ISRAEL.--an official interpreter of the sacred books of the Jews. The Comte's words are quoted from the third chapter of the Gospel of St. John.

77:LVI DIVINE NAMES.--"It must be obsérved that these divine names were produced by scientific men energising according to a divine afflatus," THOMAS TAYLOR," THE CRATYLUS OF PLATO." NOTE PAGE 131.

77:LVII AGLA.--Every letter of the Hebrew alphabet has hidden or sacred meaning, knowledge of which renders Hebrew names self interpretative. The four letters of the word AGLA and their significance are:--

A.--The First Cause, Positive Force.

G.--Negative Force.

L.--Objective Force.

A.--The First Cause.

. As in the microcosm, the physical body is informed and animated by the invisible or spiritual man, so in the macrocosm, the visible Sun derives its light and life from an invisible or Spiritual Sun, whose glory and power

Agla is here used as a substitute for the Ineffable Name of the Sun behind the Sun, which is the Lost Word of Masonry and Sacrificial Word pronounced by the First Cause of the Brahmins, and whose property it is to open the human consciousness to this estate of oneness with God. Reference is made to this Name in the Egyptian Book of the Dead "I am the Great God existing of myself, the Creator of His Name,--I know the Name of the Great God that is there." As in ancient Egypt so in our own land and day there exists that spoken Word or Name, inner key of spiritual knowledge possessed by the hierophants of all ages, to the power of which Christ testified, saying " the works that I do in my Father's Name, they bear witness of me." COMPARE THE DIVINE POWER OF LETTERS, NOTE U, COMMENTARY CONTINUED.

79:LVIII CELIUS RHODIGINUS AND HIS ORACLE. NOTE V, COMMENTARY CONTINUED.

81:LIX SAMBETHE, THE DAUGHTER OF NOAH. NOTE W, COMMENTARY CONTINUED.

81:LX SACRED BOOKS OF THE SIBYLS.--Under the title of "Oracles of the Sibyls" there exists a collection of verses in Greek hexameter in fourteen books, which has long been regarded as an authentic collection of the prophecies of the pagan Sibyls. In Libri Divin-arum Rerum, Lactantius quotes Varro as saying that these books are not all written by one Sibyl, but are called Sibylline because by the ancients all prophetesses were called Sibyls. And Diodorus Siculus states that the Sibyl was actuated by the spirit of God and that the name Sibyl signifies "being full of God."

As these books accurately prophesied the mission, teaching, and miracles of Christ as well as his death upon the cross and resurrection, the church fathers accepted and made use of them without hesitation. The pleasantry of the Comte as to the marriage of David and the Sibyl is a reference to the words occuring in the Mass for the Dead, "Teste David cum Sibylle." (By the witness of David and the Sibyl).

The original Sibylline Books were kept concealed in the Capitol at Rome, and were lost when it was destroyed by fire in 405, A.D. They were held in

Now Justin Martyr states that it was the ancient Babylonian Sibyl (Sambethe), who came to Cumae, and there gave Oracles which contain the true religion, and which Plato admired as divine. Thus Sambethe, the most ancient of the Sibyls, is seen to have initiated the Sibylline Oracles which guided the destinies of ancient Rome as well as the Delphic Oracles which exercised such influence over the evolution of ancient Greece. And if Justin Martyr's statement * as to the tenor of her teachings is to be believed, we must conclude that the

TRUE RELIGION EXISTED IN BOTH ROME AND GREECE PRIOR TO THE CHRISTIAN ERA AND DURING WHAT IS NOW TERMED THE PAGAN PERIOD.

81:* GIVEN NOTE X, COMMENTARY CONTINUED.

SIBYLLINE PROPHECY OF WORLD PEACE. NOTE II, COMMENTARY CONCLUDED.

85:LXI

87:LXII * said to be the husband of Isis (Nature) and parent of Horus (the Sun), symbolically represented as a hawk because that bird flies nearest the Sun. This ancient people knew that once every year the Parent Sun is in line with the Dog Star. Therefore the Great Pyramid was so constructed that, at this sacred moment, the light of the Dog Star fell upon the square "Stone of God" at the upper end of the Great Gallery descending † The adorable Fire and immense depth of Flame which the human heart must not fear to touch is that power proceeding from the Lord and Giver of Life, the Creative Principle of the Universe, the Sun behind the Sun.

Modern science partially confirms these facts as to the significance of the Great Pyramid but lacks the key to them. Dr. Percival Lowell, in a recent essay entitled "Precession and the Pyramids," says--"The Great Pyramid was in fact a great observatory, the most superb one ever erected," and "The Great Gallery's floor exactly included every possible position of the Sun's shadow at noon from the year's beginning to its end. We thus reach the remarkable result that the gallery was a gigantic gnomon or sundial telling, not like ordinary sundials the hour of the day, but on a more impressive scale, the seasons of the year."

87:* AND ALSO AS AMEN-RA, THE HIDDEN SUN.

87:† MARSHAM ADAMS "THE BOOK OF THE MASTER." PAGE 141-2.

91:LXIII

93:LXIV

PLUTARCH ON EXHALATION.--For the power of the exhalation neither has a predisposing influence over all nor does it always predispose the same people in the same way hut, as has been said, it supplies a beginning and, as it were, enkindles those spirits which are prepared and fitted to receive and suffer change under its influence. This divinatory vapour is a breath and a most divine and most holy Spirit, (literally, divine it is in very fact and supernatural). TRANSLATED FROM PLUTARCH MORALIA, "DE DEFECTU ORACULORUM" §438 C, D.