But ages will be thrown away in repeating this process.

A simian creed will not be very hard thus to pierce. When forming a
religion, they will be in far too much haste, to wait to apply a strict
test to their holy men's visions. Furthermore they will have so few
visions, that any will awe them; so naturally they will accept any
vision as valid. Then their rapid and fertile inventiveness will come
into play, and spin the wildest creeds from each vision living dust
ever dreamed.

They will next expect everybody to believe whatever a few men have
seen, on the slippery ground that if you simply try believing it, you
will then feel it's true. Such religions are vicarious; their prophets
alone will see God, and the rest will be supposed to be introduced to
him by the prophets. These "believers" will have no white insight at
all of their own.

Now, a second-hand believer who is warmed at one remove--if at all--by
the breath of the spirit, will want to have exact definitions in the
beliefs he accepts. Not having had a vision to go by, he needs plain
commandments. He will always try to crystallize creeds. And that,
plainly, is fatal. For as time goes on, new and remoter aspects of
truth are discovered, which can seldom or never be fitted into creeds
that are changeless.

* * * * *

Over and over again, this will be the process: A spiritual personality
will be born; see new truth; and be killed. His new truth not only will
not fit into too rigid creeds, but whatever false finality is in them
it must contradict. So, the seer will be killed.

His truth being mighty, however, it will kill the creeds too.

There will then be nothing left to believe in--except the dead seer.

For a few generations he may then be understandingly honored. But his
priests will feel that is not enough: he must be honored uncritically:
so uncritically that, whatever his message, it must be deemed the Whole
Truth. Some of his message they themselves will have garbled; and it
was not, at best, final; but still it will be made into a fixed creed
and given his name. Truth will be given his name. All men who
thereafter seek truth must find only his kind, else they won't be his
"followers." (To be his co-seekers won't do.) Priests will always hate
any new seers who seek further for truth. Their feeling will be that
their seer found it, and thus ended all that. Just believe what he
says. The job's over. No m