University of Virginia Library

Scriptural allegory

The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the dreamer and dream are one, for neither is true nor real. First, this narrative supposes that something springs from nothing, that matter pre- cedes mind. Second, it supposes that mind enters matter,

and matter becomes living, substantial, and intelligent. The order of this allegory - the belief that everything springs from dust instead of from Deity - has been main- tained in all the subsequent forms of belief. This is the error, - that mortal man starts materially, that non- intelligence becomes intelligence, that mind and soul are both right and wrong.