← lament

Do you know, Asclepius, that Egypt is an image of heaven? Or, to speak more exactly, that in Egypt all the operations of the powers which rule and work in heaven are also present in the earth below?

In fact, it should be said that the whole universe dwells in this our land as in a sanctuary. And yet, since it is fitting that the wise should have knowledge of all events before they come to pass, you must not be left in ignorance of what I will now tell you :

There will come a time when it will seem to have been in vain that Egyptians honored the godhead with heartfelt piety and service, and all our holy worship will be judged fruitless and ineffectual. For the gods will return from earth to heaven, Egypt will be forsaken, and the land which was once the home of religion will be left desolate, bereft of the presence of its deities.

O, Egypt ... of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale, which thine own children in times to come will not believe. Nothing will be left but graven words and only the stones will tell of her piety. And in that day men will be weary of life and they will cease to think the universe worthy of wonder and worship. They will no longer love this world around us— this incomparable work of God, this glorious structure which it created, this sum of good made up of things of many diverse forms, this instrument whereby God operates ungrudgingly in favor of humanity's welfare, this combination and accumulation of all the manifold things that can call forth the veneration, praise, and love of the beholder.

Darkness will be preferred to light, and death will be thought more profitable than life; no one will raise their eyes to heaven; the pious will be deemed insane, and the impious wise; the madman will be thought a brave man, and the wicked will be esteemed as good. As for the soul, and the belief that it is immortal by nature, or may hope to attain to immortality, as I have taught you, all this they will mock, and even persuade themselves that it is false. No word of reverence or piety— no utterance worthy of heaven— will be heard or believed.

And so the gods will depart from mankind ... a grievous thing! And only demons will remain, who will mingle with men and drive the poor wretches into all manner of reckless crime, wars, robberies, frauds, and all things hostile to the nature of the soul. Then will the earth tremble, and the sea bear no ships; heaven will not support the stars in their orbits; all voices of the gods will be silenced; the fruits of the earth will rot; the soil will turn barren, and the very air will sicken with sullen stagnation. All things will be disordered and all good will disappear.

But when all this has befallen, Asclepius, then the Creator of all things will look on that which has come to pass and will calm the disorder. Those who have gone astray will be called back to the right path; evil will be cleansed from the world— washed away by floods, burned out by fiercest fire, and expelled by war and pestilence. And thus the world will be brought back to its former aspect so that the world will once more be deemed worthy of worship and wondering reverence. And on that day God, the maker and restorer of the mighty fabric, will be adored with continuous songs of praise and blessing.

Such is the new birth of the universe; it is a making again of all things good, a holy and awe-inspiring restoration of all nature; and it is wrought within the process of time by the eternal will of the Creator.