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Nº. XVII
CONCERNING THE GODS (1)
A TRUE Idea is the reflect
of a true Substance. It is because religious ideas are true ideas that they are
common to all ages and peoples; the differences being of expression merely, and
due to the variation of density and character of the magnetic atmosphere through
which the image passes. The fact that every nation in every age has conceived,
in some shape, of the Gods, constitutes of itself a proof that the Gods really are. For Nothing
projects no image upon the magnetic light; and where an image is universally
perceived, there is certainly an object which projects it. An Idea, inborn, ineradicable, constant, which sophism, ridicule, or false
science has power to break only, but not to dispel: – an image which, however
disturbed, invariably returns on itself and re-forms, as does the image of the
sky or the stars in a lake, however the reflecting water may be momentarily
shaken by a stone or a passing vessel: – such an image as this is necessarily
the reflection of a real and true thing, and no illusion begotten of the water
itself.
In the same manner the constant idea
of the Gods, persistent in all minds in all ages, is a true image; for it is
verily, and in no metaphoric sense, the projection upon the human perception of
the
Eidola
of the Divine persons. The Eidolon is the reflection of a true
object in the magnetic atmosphere; and the magnetic atmosphere is a transparent
medium, through which the soul receives sensations. For
sensation is the only means of knowledge, whether for the body or for the
reason. The body perceives
by means of the five avenues of touch. The soul
perceives in like manner by the same sense, but of a finer sort, and put into
action by subtler agents. The soul can know nothing not
perceptible;
and nothing not perceptible is real. For that which is not can
give no image. Only that which is can be reflected.
Footnotes
(47:1)
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