eisure, and the power of holding intercourse, not only with men, but
with the brute creation, had used all these advantages with a view to
philosophy, conversing with the brutes as well as with one another, and
learning of every nature which was gifted with any special power, and
was able to contribute some special experience to the store of wisdom,
there would be no difficulty in deciding that they would be a thousand
times happier than the men of our own day. Or, again, if they had merely
eaten and drunk until they were full, and told stories to one another
and to the animals--such stories as are now attributed to them--in this
case also, as I should imagine, the answer would be easy. But until some
satisfactory witness can be found of the love of that age for knowledge
and discussion, we had better let the matter drop, and give the reason
why we have unearthed this tale, and then we shall be able to get on.
In the fulness of time, when the change was to take place, and the
earth-born race had all perished, and every soul had completed its
proper cycle of births and been sown in the earth her appointed number
of times, the pilot of the universe let the helm go, and retired to his
place of view; and then Fate and innate desire reversed the motion of
the world. Then also all the inferior deities who share the rule of the
supreme power, being informed of what was happening, let go the parts
of the world which were under their control. And the world turning
round with a sudden shock, being impelled in an opposite direction from
beginning to end, was shaken by a mighty earthquake, which wrought a new
destruction of all manner of animals. Afterwards, when sufficient time
had elapsed, the tumult and confusion and earthquake ceased, and the
universal creature, once more at peace, attained to a calm, and settled
down into his own orderly and accustomed course, having the charge and
rule of himself and of all the creatures which are contained in him, and
executing, as far as he remembered them, the instructions of his
Father and Creator, more precisely at first, but afterwords with less
exactness. The reason of the falling off was the admixture of matter in
him; this was inherent in the primal nature, which was full of disorder,
until attaining to the present order. From God, the constructor, the
world received all that is good in him, but from a previous state came
elements of evil and unrighteousness, which, thence derived, firs