s.

Then came picture after picture. I saw Powers and Peoples clad in
various robes and speaking many tongues. I saw them pass and pass in
millions--loving, hating, struggling, dying. Some few were happy and
some had woe stamped upon their faces; but most bore not the seal of
happiness nor of woe, but rather that of patience. And ever as they
passed from age to age, high above in the heavens the Avenger fought
on with the Evil Thing, while the scale of victory swung now here now
there. But neither conquered, nor was it given to me to know how the
battle ended.

And I understood that what I had beheld was the holy vision of the
struggle between the Good and the Evil Powers. I saw that man was
created vile, but Those who are above took pity on him, and came down
to him to make him good and happy, for the two things are one thing. But
man returned to his wicked way, and then the bright Spirit of Good, who
is of us called Osiris, but who has many names, offered himself up for
the evil-doing of the race that had dethroned him. And from him and the
Divine Mother, of whom all nature is, sprang another spirit who is the
Protector of us on earth, as Osiris is our justifier in Amenti.

For this is the mystery of the Osiris.

Of a sudden, as I saw the visions, these things became clear to me. The
mummy cloths of symbol and of ceremony that wrap Osiris round fell from
him, and I understood the secret of religion, which is Sacrifice.

The pictures passed, and again the priest, my guide, spoke to me.

"Hast thou understood, Harmachis, those things which it has been granted
thee to see?"

"I have," I said. "Are the rites ended?"

"Nay, they are but begun. That which follows thou must endure alone!
Behold I leave thee, to return at the morning light. Once more I warn
thee. That which thou shalt see, few may look upon and live. In all my
days I have known but three who dared to face this dread hour, and of
those three at dawn but one was found alive. Myself, I have not trod
this path. It is too high for me."

"Depart," I said; "my soul is athirst for knowledge. I will dare it."

He laid his hand upon my shoulder and blessed me. He went. I heard the
door shut to behind him, the echoes of his footsteps slowly died away.

Then I felt that I was alone, alone in the Holy Place with Things
which are not of the earth. Silence fell--silence deep and black as the
darkness which was around me. The silence fell, it gathered as the clou