ed to admit that it is usually understood as being
"decidedly pantheistic." He suggests, however, that the writer may
HAVE INTENDED TO SAY (the italics are mine) that "the spirit who was
heretofore the Creator was the unconscious spirit."

Berosus, the scholar of Babylon, who, until a comparatively recent
time has furnished all the information extant concerning Babylonian
antiquities, in his account of the creation of man and of the universe,
says that in the beginning all was water and darkness; that in the water
were the beginnings of life; but as yet there was no order. Men were
there with the wings of birds and even with the feet of beasts. There
were also quadrupeds and men with fishes' tails, all of which had been
produced by a twofold principle. Over this incongruous mass a woman
presided. This woman is called Omoroka by the Babylonians and by the
Chaldeans Thalatth. The latter name, signifies, "bearing" or "egg
producing."

In the Babylonian Kosmogony, according to Endemus, the pupil of
Aristotle, the beginning of the universe was called Tauthe, which being
interpreted means "Mother of the Gods." Associated with her sometimes
appears the male principle--Apason. In the history of Berosus, there is
given an account of Oaunes--a mythical teacher of Babylon, who appeared
with the head of a human being and the body of a fish or serpent.
This personage brought to the Babylonians all the knowledge which they
possessed. Oaunes wrote "concerning the generation of mankind, of their
different ways of life, and of their civil polity." He it was who
gave the above account of creation. He says that finally Omoroka, or
Thalatth, the woman who existed before the creation, was divided, one
half of her forming the heavens, "the other half the earth." "All this,"
Berosus declares, "was an allegorical description of Nature."(93)

93) Prof. Smith, Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 34, 35.

In the following legend will be observed the groundwork for the story
of the flood. Xisuthrus was a king of Chaldea. To him the deity, Kronos,
appeared in a vision and warned him that upon the fifteenth day of
the month Daesius there would be a flood, by which mankind would
be destroyed. He therefore enjoined him to write a history of the
beginning, progress, and conclusion of all things down to the present
time, and to bury it in Sippara, the City of the Sun. He was commanded
also to build a vessel, and take with him into it his friend