He ygra physis arche kai genesis panton.~

Plutarch, _De Iside_.

According to the Koran and the Jewish Rabbis, the throne of God rested
on the primeval waters from which the earth was produced. See a note in
Rodwell's translation of the Koran, _Sura_. xi.

[167-2] I have discussed some of these myths in the seventh chapter of
the _Myths of the New World_.

[168-1] How it troubled the early Christians who dared not adopt the
refuge of the Epochs of Nature, may be seen in the _Confessions_ of St.
Augustine, Lib. XI, cap. 10, et seq. He quotes the reply of one pushed
by the inquiry, what God was doing before creation: "He was making a
hell for inquisitive busy-bodies." _Alta spectantibus gehennas parabat._

[170-1] Many interesting references to the Oriental flood-myth may be
found in Cory's _Ancient Fragments_. See also, Dr. Fr. Windischmann,
_Die Ursagen der Arischen Voelker_, pp. 4-10. It is probable that in very
ancient Semitic tradition Adam was represented as the survivor of a
flood anterior to that of Noah. Maimonides relates that the Sabians
believed the world to be eternal, and called Adam "the Prophet of the
Moon," which symbolized, as we know from other sources, the deity of
water. Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, _More Nevochim_, cap. iv. In early
Christian symbolism Christ was called "the true Noah"; the dove
accompanied him also, and as through Noah came "salvation by wood and
water," so through Christ came "salvation by spirit and water." (See St.
Cyril of Jerusalem's _Catechetical Lectures_, Lect. xvii., cap. 10). The
fish (~ichthus~) was the symbol of Christ as well as of Oannes. As the
second coming of Christ was to be the destruction of the world, how
plainly appear the germs of the myth of the Epochs of Nature in the
Judaeo-Christian mind!

[171-1] Besides the expressions in the Book of Ecclesiastes and the
later prophets, the doctrine is distinctly announced in one of the most
sublime of the Psalms (xc), one attributed to "Moses the Man of God."

[172-1] Malachi, ch. iv., v. 2.

[175-1] C. F. Koppen, _Die Lamaische Hierarchie_, s. 28.

[175-2] Odainsakr, o privative, _dain_ death, _akr_ land, "the land of
immortal life." Saxo Grammaticus speaks of it also. Another such land
faintly referred to in the Edda is Breidablick, governed by Baldur, the
Light-god.

[176-1] C. F. Koppen, _Die Lamaische Hierarchie und Kirche_, p. 17.

[179-1] John Stuart Mill, _Theism_, p. 256.

[183-1] Creuzer, _Symbolik u