he strings of the lyre are mounted. See an
excellent memoir of M. Dupuis sur l'Origine des
Constellations.

Then, passing on to the history of the secondary Genii, he related how
the Eternal, to display his own glory, created various orders of angels,
whose business it was to sing his praises and to direct the universe;
how a part of these angels revolted under the guidance of an ambitious
chief, who strove to usurp the power of God, and to govern all; how God
plunged them into a world of darkness, there to undergo the punishment
for their crimes; how at last, touched with compassion, he consented to
release them, to receive them into favor, after they should undergo a
long series of probations; how, after creating for this purpose fifteen
orbits or regions of planets, and peopling them with bodies, he ordered
these rebel angels to undergo in them eighty-seven transmigrations; he
then explained how souls, thus purified, returned to the first source,
to the ocean of life and animation from which they had proceeded; and
since all living creatures contain portions of this universal soul,
he taught how criminal it was to deprive them of it. He was finally
proceeding to explain the rites and ceremonies, when, speaking of
offerings and libations of milk and butter made to gods of copper and
wood, and then of purifications by the dung and urine of cows,
there arose a universal murmur, mixed with peals of laughter, which
interrupted the orator.

Each of the different groups began to reason on that religion: "They are
idolators," said the Mussulmans; "and should be exterminated." "They are
deranged in their intellect," said the followers of Confucius; "we
must try to cure them." "What ridiculous gods," said others, "are these
puppets, besmeared with grease and smoke! Are gods to be washed
like dirty children, from whom you must brush away the flies, which,
attracted by honey, are fouling them with their excrements!"

But a Bramin exclaimed with indignation: "These are profound
mysteries,--emblems of truth, which you are not worthy to hear."

"And in what respect are you more worthy than we?" exclaimed a Lama of
Tibet. "Is it because you pretend to have issued from the head of Brama,
and the rest of the human race from the less noble parts of his body?
But to support the pride of your distinctions of origin and castes,
prove to us in the first place that you are different from other men;
establish, in the next plac