ctual treasures with a veil of mystery. Roger
Bacon, the English monk, once said that it was necessary to keep the
discoveries of the philosophers from those unworthy of knowing them.
How did he expect a realization of 'Thy kingdom come,' I wonder?"

"They didn't expect it to come--on earth," said Jose.

"No. They relegated that to the imagined realm which was to be entered
through the gateway of death. It's mighty convenient to be able to
relegate your proofs to that mysterious realm beyond the grave. That
has always been a tremendous power in the hands of priests of all
times and lands. By the way, did you know that the story of Abel's
assassination was one of many handed down, in one form or another, by
the priests of India and Egypt?"

"Do you mean it?" inquired Jose eagerly.

"Certainly. The story doubtless comes from the ancient Egyptian tale
which the priests of that time used to relate regarding the murder
of Osiris by his brother, Set. It was a deed of jealousy. The story
later became incorporated into the sacred books of India and Egypt,
and was afterward taken over by the Hebrews, when they were captives
in Egypt. The Hebrews learned much of Egyptian theology, and their
own religion was greatly tinctured by it subsequently. The legend of
the deluge, for example, is another tradition of those primitive
days, and credited by the nations of antiquity. But here there is the
likelihood of a connection with the great cataclysm of antiquity,
the disappearance of the island of Atlantis in consequence of a
violent earthquake and volcanic action. This alleged island,
supposed to be a portion of the strip at one time connecting South
America with Africa, is thought to have sunk beneath the waters of
the present Atlantic ocean some nine thousand years before Solon
visited Egypt, and hence, some eleven thousand years ago. Anyway,
the story of this awful catastrophe got into the Egyptian records
in the earliest times, and was handed down to the Hebrews, who
probably based their story of the flood upon it. You see, there is a
foundation of some sort for all those legends in the book of Genesis.
The difficulty has been that humanity has for centuries childishly
accepted them as historical fact. For example, the serpent story.
Now in very primitive times the serpent was the special emblem of
Kneph, the creator of the world, and was regarded as a sort of
good genius. It is still so regarded by the Chinese, who make of it