8 
THE BOOK OF THE GREAT SEA-DRAGONS. 
for our Argument that Violence is one of his attributes. 
Let us then track Violence back from our own Iron Age 
to his Lair, in which he first on Earth lapped his tongue 
in blood. It may be objected that many murderous 
monsters ensanguined the Primal Deep, crying havoc, 
long before the coming of Man, and the revelation of 
Moral Evil in his person. Now, it is impossible to say 
that no Race of fallen Intelligences had previously ruled 
the Ocean, for whose sake, it had been accursed. This 
opinion was held by the most ancient Nations, and even 
embodied in descriptive Colors on their Temples. The 
Holy Scriptures Themselves encourage some such an 
hypothesis, in that Cain says, “ every one that findeth me 
shall slay me,” at a time which it has sorely vexed theo¬ 
logians to furnish with other men. And Genesis pro¬ 
nouncing once that Jehovah blessed the Creatures of the 
Deep, gives the green herb for food to the beast of the 
Earth, the fowl of heaven, and every creeping thing upon 
the earth, and then in this final summation leaves the 
inhabitants of the Sea entirely out. This expressive 
silence, the exclamation of Cain, and the Magian Tra¬ 
ditions, are sufficiently indicative of an hypothesis, the 
import of which stands confessed under our notice. So 
many Sciences as well as Arts have been wholly lost, or 
we may have traced this fact, and all others in Nature 
and Ethics, up to its source, and there squared it as cer¬ 
tainly with the Eternal Law, as with the Analogies of 
reason, the induction of Faith, and the belief of Nations. 
Passing this, then, we shudder over the old Spectral 
World, when, armed with poison, fang, and fury, ten 
thousand hideous monsters slipped from leash, shriek to 
the Four Winds, and scare peace for ever away. The 
Malefactor Adamites, gigantic in the Fall, so were the 
grim Brutes giants which battled with them for blood. 
These too have their Ancestral bones, in many an Antre 
vast, and they both together perish, in the wild exulant 
Flood. 
Thus, we demonstrate a fugitive but certain Element, 
new to our own Creation, if not the very antagonist by 
which it shall be at last annihilated ; the Spirit of Evil, 
opposed to the existence of all things, not excepting its 
own Suicidal-self. Its effects upon the first unguarded 
Sons of Man, gifted as they were with incredible moral 
and physical energy, must have been awful. To 
find themselves deposed from Authority as gods, and 
their falling Empire invaded by frightful Swarms of 
Venomous Beings, must have torn their hearts with rage 
and remorse. 
“ Audax omnia perpeti 
Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas.” 
Old Ammon invented not the sublime Story of the 
Titanides. The First amongst the post-Diluvian Nations, 
amidst silence and desolation, and the scarcely withdrawn 
tokens of God’s Wrath, it was related to him by Osiris in 
the Shadow of the Pillars which Seth gravened with now 
accomplished Prophecies, and the most precious lore of 
the departed Giants. 
Fortified on every side, the Sacred Scriptures stand 
based upon Everlasting Truth. The personality of Matter, 
whatever it be, Elohim created it. Light, whatever it be, 
Elohim next created. Life, whatever it be, created He 
last. He clothed the World vernally, gave to it fishes, 
then beasts, and appointed Man over them all. The heat 
which forced Ferns into Forests, and crowded them by 
millions, were fatal to any order of living or extinct crea¬ 
ture ; under a mitigated Clime, the most nerveless animals 
would first come forth ; they came, and there in the 
Transition Rocks, the Mollusc Orthaceratite, Spirifer, 
Producta, Trilobites, and Myriad Radiated Creatures 
remain. The vertebrata in order followed ; at last the 
Earth was inhabited, and Man appointed Lord over all. 
But a change came upon the happy scene. Let the 
strife of families, the factions of Empire, an armed con¬ 
flicting world confess the dismal Cause. 
Our Race was well nigh extinguished, and the primal 
Carnivora destroyed quite : behold the wrecks of a Deluge 
strown innumerable everywhere “quae caret ora cruore 
nostro?” and hear the traditions of every People upon 
Earth, and the Scriptures. Too long has it been agreed 
to postpone these Holy Books, the Fountain of all true 
Philosophy. They withdraw the Curtain of Time, and by 
the Curse of Eve explain the Ruins of the World, reveal¬ 
ing the sure footsteps of Jehovah. Through all His glo¬ 
rious works to the topmost, one ceaseless expression of 
unutterable goodness shines. From fallen Adam to the 
Flood Satanic fury rules. By this Golden Book of Books 
we decipher the momentous Fortunes of mankind to 
Eternity itself: Through Gulfs of molten blood battling 
with Hell and Death, and at last dashing the kraaken 
Fiends over the walls of God’s wailing Creation, down, 
down unto the Abyss Tophet. But the Theme belongs to 
another occasion. 
The Slough of Matter in which the moderns splash, 
subserves a Spectacle of which the world has tired before. 
The mechanical propensities of our Age vainly essay 
an argument which has no ground, and is opposed to the 
immortal instincts and habits of the Soul. The Times 
will surely come when all gross Theories of Matter shall 
be devoted to the Flames, and a second Othmar decree 
for all Nations the everlasting destruction of the instru¬ 
ments by which the Spirit of our Race has been Carnal¬ 
ized and so nearly lost. The Grand Scheme of the 
matterless illimitable universe shall remain, like an old 
and massive Temple, or a vast Cathedral, upreared by 
Colossal Genii, continuous and changeless as Jehovah and 
co-eternal. 
