第27章 THE BANQUET(3)

Iaveh, who dictated them, was one of those spirits who people the lower air, and cause the greater part of the evils, from which we suffer; but he surpassed all the others in ignorance and ferocity.On the contrary, the serpent with golden wings, which twined its azure coils round the tree of knowledge, was made up of light and love.Acombat between these two powers--the one of light and the other of darkness--was, therefore, inevitable.It occurred soon after the creation of the world.God had hardly begun to rest after His labors;Adam and Eve, the first man and the first woman, lived happy and naked in the Garden of Eden, when Iaveh conceived--to their misfortune--the design of governing them and all the generations which Eve already bore in her splendid loins.As he possessed neither the compass nor the lyre, and was equally ignorant of the science which commands and the art which persuades, he frightened these two poor children by hideous apparitions, capricious threats, and thunder-bolts.Adam and Eve, feeling his shadow upon them, pressed closer to one another, and their love waxed stronger in fear.The serpent took pity on them, and determined to instruct them, in order that, possessing knowledge, they might no longer be misled by lies.Such an undertaking required extreme prudence, and the frailty of the first human couple rendered it almost hopeless.The well-intentioned demon essayed it, however.

Without the knowledge of Iaveh--who pretended to see everything, but, in reality, was not very sharp-sighted--he approached these two beings, and charmed their eyes by the splendour of his coat and the brilliancy of his wings.Then he interested their minds by forming before them, with his body, definite figures, such as the circle, the ellipse, and the spiral, the wonderful properties of which have since been recognised by the Greeks.Adam meditated on these figures more than Eve did.But when the serpent began to speak, and taught the most sublime truths--those which cannot be demonstrated--he found that Adam being made of red earth, was of too dull a nature to understand these subtle distinctions, but that Eve, on the contrary, being more tender and more sensitive, was easily impressed.Therefore he conversed with her alone, in the absence of her husband, in order to initiate her first--DORION.Permit me, Zenothemis, to interrupt you.I speedily recognised in the myth you have explained to us an episode in the war of Pallas Athene against the giants.Iaveh much resembles Typhoon, and Pallas is represented by the Athenians with a serpent at her side.But what you have said causes me considerable doubt as to the intelligence or good faith of the serpent of whom you have spoken.If he had really possessed knowledge, would he have entrusted it to a woman's little head, which was incapable of containing it? I should rather consider that he was like Iaveh, ignorant and a liar, and that he chose Eve because she was easily seduced, and he imagined that Adam would have more intelligence and perception.

ZENOTHEMIS.Learn, Dorion, that it is not by perception and intelligence, but by sensibility, that the highest and purest truths are reached.That is why women, who, generally, are less reflective but more sensitive than men, rise more easily to the knowledge of things divine.In them is the gift of prophecy, and it is not without reason that Apollo Citharedes, and Jesus of Nazareth, are sometimes represented clad, like women, in flowing robes.The initiator was therefore wise--whatever you may say to the contrary, Dorion--in bestowing light, not on the duller Adam, but on Eve, who was whiter than milk or the stars.She freely listened to him, and allowed herself to be led to the tree of knowledge, the branches of which rose to heaven, and which was bathed with the divine spirit as with a dew.

This tree was covered with leaves which spoke all the languages of future races of men, and their united voices formed a perfect harmony.

Its abundant fruit gave to the initiated who tasted it the knowledge of metals, stones, and plants, and also of physical and moral laws;but this fruit was like fire, and those who feared suffering and death did not dare to put it to their lips.Now, as she had listened attentively to the lessons of the serpent, Eve despised these empty terrors, and wished to taste the fruit which gave the knowledge of God.But, as she loved Adam, and did not wish him to be inferior to her, she took him by the hand and led him to the wonderful tree.Then she picked one of the burning apples, bit it, and proffered it to her companion.Unfortunately, Iaveh, who was by chance walking in the garden, surprised them, and seeing that they had become wise, he fell into a most ungovernable rage.It is in his jealous fits that he is most to be feared.Assembling all his forces, he created such a turmoil in the lower air that these two weak beings were terrified.