| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: about a thing of which the usefulness continues during the whole of life,
and it makes an enormous difference whether we are to regard it as
beneficial or not,--a thing, too, which is esteemed of the highest
importance by the Hellenes:--(for parents, as soon as their children are,
as they think, come to years of discretion, urge them to consider how
wealth may be acquired, since by riches the value of a man is judged):--
When, I say, we are thus in earnest, and you, who agree in other respects,
fall to disputing about a matter of such moment, that is, about wealth, and
not merely whether it is black or white, light or heavy, but whether it is
a good or an evil, whereby, although you are now the dearest of friends and
kinsmen, the most bitter hatred may arise betwixt you, I must hinder your
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: divinities in, each case; for no system of worship carried
farther the identification of the god with the sacrifice
[? victim], and of both with the officiating priest. The
connection was emphasized by the priests wearing the
newly-flayed skins of the victims--just as in Greece, Egypt
and Assyria, the fawn-skin or bull-hide or goat-skin or fish-
skin of the victims is worn by the celebrants. Finally, an
image of the god was made out of paste, and this was divided
into morsels and eaten in a hideous sacrament by those
who communicated."[2]
[1] Compare the festival of Thargelia at Athens, originally
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: by him without the slightest notice or demonstration of surprise
from his friend. They both attended this mass of his founding.
"Will you tell me, my dear fellow," said Bianchon, as they left
the church, "the reason for your fit of monkishness? I have
caught you three times going to mass---- You! You must account to
me for this mystery, explain such a flagrant disagreement between
your opinions and your conduct. You do not believe in God, and
yet you attend mass? My dear master, you are bound to give me an
answer."
"I am like a great many devout people, men who on the surface are
deeply religious, but quite as much atheists as you or I can be."
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