Transcript for:
Lecture on 'Stolen Legacy' by George G. M. James

[Music] stolen legacy greek philosophy is stolen egyptian philosophy by george g m james copyright 1954. introduction characteristics of greek philosophy the term greek philosophy to begin with is a misnomer for there is no such philosophy in existence the ancient egyptians had developed a very complex religious system called the mysteries which was also the first system of salvation as such it regarded the human body as a prison house of the soul which could be liberated from its bodily through the disciplines of the arts and sciences and advanced from the level of immortal to that of a god this was the notion of the some bonum or greatest good to which all men must aspire and it also became the basis of all ethical concepts the egyptian mystery system was also a secret order and membership was gained by initiation and a pledge to secrecy the teaching was graded and delivered orally to the neophyte and under the circumstances of secrecy the egyptians developed secret systems of writing and teaching and forbade their initiates from writing what they had learnt after nearly five thousand years of prohibition against the greeks they were permitted to enter egypt for the purpose of their education first through the persian invasion and secondly through the invasion of alexander the great from the 6th century bc therefore to the death of aristotle 322 bc the greeks made the best of their chance to learn all they could about egyptian culture most students received instructions directly from the egyptian priests but after the invasion by alexander the great the royal temples and libraries were plundered and pillaged an aristotle school converted the library at alexander into a research center there is no wonder then that the production of the unusually large number of books ascribed to aristotle has proved a physical impossibility for any single man within a lifetime the history of aristotle's life has done him far more harm than good since it carefully avoids any statement relating to his visit to egypt either on his own account or in company with alexander the great when he invaded egypt this silence of history at once throws doubt upon the life and achievements of aristotle he is said to have spent 20 years under the tutorship of plato who is regarded as a philosopher yet he graduated as the greatest of scientists of antiquity two questions might be asked a how could plato teach aristotle what he himself did not know b why should aristotle spend 20 years under a teacher from whom he could learn nothing this bit of history sounds incredible again in order to avoid suspicion over the extraordinary number of books ascribed to aristotle history tells us that alexander the great gave him a large sum of money to get the books here again the history sounds incredible and three statements must here be made a in order to purchase books on science they must have been in circulation so as to enable aristotle to secure them b if the books were in circulation before aristotle purchased them and since he is not supposed to have visited egypt at all then the books in question must have been circulated among greek philosophers c if circulated among greek philosophers then we would expect the subject matter of such books to have been known before aristotle's time and consequently he could not be credited either with producing them or introducing new ideas of science another point of considerable interest to be accounted for was the attitude of the athenian government toward this so-called greek philosophy which it regarded as foreign in origin and treated it accordingly only a brief study of history is necessary to show that greek philosophers were undesirable citizens who throughout the period of their investigations were victims of relentless persecution at the hands of the athenian government anax agoras was imprisoned and exiled socrates was executed plato was sold into slavery and aristotle was indicted and exiled while the earliest of them all pythagoras was expelled from croton in italy can we imagine the greeks making such an about as to claim the very teachings which they had at first persecuted and openly rejected certainly they knew they were usurping what they had never produced and as we enter step by step into our study the greater do we discover evidence which leads us to the conclusion that greek philosophers were not the authors of greek philosophy bought the egyptian priest in hierophants aristotle died in 322 bc not many years after he had been aided by alexander the great to secure the largest quantity of scientific books from the royal libraries and temples of egypt in spite however of such great intellectual treasure the death of aristotle marked the death of philosophy among the greeks who did not seem to possess the natural ability to advance these sciences consequently history informs us that the greeks were forced to make a study of ethics which they also borrowed from the egyptian summum bonum or greatest good the two other athenian philosophers must be mentioned here i mean socrates and plato who also became famous in history as philosophers and great thinkers every schoolboy believes that when he hears or reads the command know thyself he is hearing or reading words which were uttered by socrates but the truth is that the egyptian temples carried inscriptions on the outside addressed to neophytes and among them was the injunction know thyself socrates copied these words from the egyptian temples and was not the author all mystery temples inside and outside of egypt carried such inscriptions just like the weekly bulletins of our modern churches similarly every schoolboy believes that when he hears or reads the names of the four cardinal virtues he is hearing or reading names of virtues determined by plato nothing has been more misleading for the egyptian mystery system contained 10 virtues and from this source plato copied what have been called the four cardinal virtuals justice wisdom temperance and courage it is indeed surprising how for centuries the greeks have been praised by the western world for intellectual accomplishments which belong without a doubt to the egyptians or the peoples of north africa another noticeable characteristic of greek philosophy is the fact that most of the greek philosophers used the teaching of pythagoras as their model and consequently they have introduced nothing new in the field of philosophy included in the pythagorean theorem we find the doctrines of a opposites b harmony c fire d mind since it is composed of fire atoms e immortality expressed as transmigration of souls f the sum bonum or the purpose of philosophy and these of course are reflected in the systems of heracletus parmenides democritus socrates plato and aristotle the next thing that is peculiar about greek philosophy is its use in literature the egyptian mystery system was the first secret order of history and the publication of his teachings was strictly prohibited this explains why initiates like socrates did not commit to writing their philosophy and why the babylonians and charles deans who were very closely associated with them also refrained from publishing those teachings we can at once see how easy it was for an ambitious and even envious nation to claim a body of unwritten knowledge which would make them great in the eyes of the primitive world the absurdity however is easily recognized when we remember that the greek language was used to translate several systems of teachings which the greeks could not succeed in claiming such were the translation of hebrew scriptures into greek called the septuagint and the translation of the christian gospels acts and the epistles in greek still called the greek new testament it is only the unwritten philosophy of the egyptians translated into greek that has met with such an unhappy fate a legacy stolen by the greeks on account of reasons already given i have been compelled to handle the subject matter of this book and the way it has been handled namely a with a frequency of repetition because it is the method of greek philosophy to use a common principle to explain several different doctrines and b the quotation and analysis of doctrines because it is the object of this book to establish the egyptian origin and this cannot be so satisfactorily done if the doctrines are not presented greek philosophy is somewhat of a drama whose chief actors were alexander the great aristotle and his successors in the peripatetic school and the roman emperor justinian alexander invaded egypt and captured the royal library at alexandria and plundered it aristotle made a library of his own with plundered books while his school occupied the building and used it as a research center finally justinian the roman emperor abolished the temples and schools of philosophy i.e another name for the egyptian mysteries which the greeks claimed as their product and on account of which they have been falsely praised and honored for centuries by the world as its greatest philosophers and thinkers this contribution to civilization was really and truly made by the egyptians and the african continent but not by the greeks or the european continent we sometimes wonder why the people of african descent find themselves in such a social plight as they do but the answer is plain enough had it not been for this drama of greek philosophy and its actors the african continent would have had a different reputation and would have enjoyed a status of respect among the nations of the world this unfortunate position of the african continent and its peoples appears to be the result of misrepresentation upon which the structure of race prejudice has been built i.e the historical world opinion that the african continent is backwards that its people are backward and that their civilization is also backward finally the dishonesty in the movement of the publication of a greek philosophy becomes very glaring when we refer to the fact purposely that by calling the theorem of the square on the hypotenuse the pythagorean theorem it has concealed the truth for centuries from the world who ought to know that the egyptians taught pythagoras and the greeks what mathematics they knew i want to mention here that among the many books which i found helpful in my present work are the intellectual adventure of man and the egyptian religion by professor henry frankfort and the mediterranean world in ancient times by professor eva sanford george g m james the aims of the book the aim of the book is to establish better race relations in the world by revealing a fundamental truth concerning the contribution of the african continent to civilization it must be born in mind that the first lesson in the humanities is to make a people aware of their contribution to civilization and the second lesson is to teach them about other civilizations by this dissemination of the truth about the civilization of individual peoples a better understanding among them and a proper appraisal of each other should follow this notion is based upon the notion of the great mastermind ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free consequently the book is an attempt to show that the true authors of greek philosophy were not the greeks but the people of north africa commonly called the egyptians and the praise and honor falsely given to the greeks for centuries belonged to the people of north africa and therefore to the african continent consequently this theft of the african legacy by the greeks led to the erroneous world opinion that the african continent has made no contribution to civilization and that its people are naturally backward this is the misrepresentation that has become the basis of race prejudice which has affected all people of color for centuries the world has been misled about the original source of the arts and sciences for centuries socrates plato and aristotle have been falsely idolized as models of intellectual greatness and for centuries the african continent has been called the dark continent because europe coveted the honor of transmitting to the world the arts and sciences i am happy to be able to bring this information to the attention of the world so that on the one hand all races and creeds might know the truth and free themselves from the prejudices which have corrupted human relations and on the other hand that the people of african origin might be emancipated from their serfdom of inferiority complex and enter upon a new era of freedom in which they would feel like free men with full human rights and privileges part one chapter one greek philosophy is stolen egyptian philosophy one the teachings of the egyptian mysteries reached other lands many centuries before it reached athens according to history pythagoras after receiving his training in egypt returned to his native island samos where he established his order for a short time after which he migrated to croton 540 bc in southern italy where his order grew to enormous proportions until his final expulsion from that country we are also told that thales 640 bc who had also received his education in egypt and his associates anaximander and anaximenes were natives of ionia in asia minor which was a stronghold of the egyptian mystery schools which they carried on sanford's the mediterranean world page 195 to 205 similarly we are told that xenophonies 576 bc par amenities zeno and malicious were also natives of ionia and that they migrated to ilea in italy and established themselves and spread the teachings of the mysteries in like manner we are also informed that heraclitus 530 bc and pedocles anax agoras and democritus were also natives of ionia who were interested in physics hence in tracing the course of the so-called greek philosophy we find that ionian students after obtaining the education from the egyptian priests returned to their native land while some of them migrated to different parts of italy where they established themselves consequently history makes it clear that the surrounding neighbors of egypt had all become familiar with the teachings of egyptian mysteries many centuries before the athenians who in 399 bc sentence socrates to death zeller's history page 112 127 170 to 172 and subsequently caused plato and aristotle to flee for their lives from athens because philosophy was something foreign and unknown to them for this same reason we would expect either the ionians or the italians to exert their prior claim to philosophy since it made contact with them long before it did with the athenians who were also his greatest enemies until alexander's conquest of egypt which provided for aristotle free access to the library of alexandria the ionians and italians made no attempt to claim the authorship of philosophy because they were well aware that the egyptians were the true authors on the other hand after the death of aristotle his athenian pupils without the authority of the state undertook to compile a history of philosophy recognized at the time as the sophia or wisdom of the egyptians which had become current and traditional in the ancient worlds which compilation because it was produced by pupils who had belonged to aristotle school later history has erroneously called greek philosophy in spite of the fact that the greeks were its greatest enemies and persecutors and had persistently treated it as a foreign innovation for this reason the so-called greek philosophy is stolen egyptian philosophy which first spread to ionia thence to italy and thence to athens and it must be remembered that at this remote period of greek history i.e tolerates to aristotle 640 bc to 322 bc the ionians were not greek citizens but at first egyptian subjects and later persian subjects sellers history page 37 46 58 66 to 83 112 127 170 172. william turner's history page 34 39 45 53 rogers student history page 15 bd alexander's history page 13 21 sanford's the mediterranean world page 157 195 to 205. a brief sketch of the ancient egyptian empire would also make it clear that asia minor or ionia was the ancient land of the hittites who were not known by any other name in ancient days according to diodorus and manathol high priest in egypt two columns were found at nicer arabia one of the goddess isis and the other of the god osiris on the latter of which the god declared that he had led an army into india to the sources of the danube in as far as the ocean this means of course that the egyptian empire at a very early date included not only the islands of the aegean sea and ionia but also extended to the extremities of the east we are also informed that senusert the first during the 12th dynasty i.e about 1900 bc conquered the whole sea coast of india beyond the ganges to the eastern ocean he is also said to have included the cyclades and the great part of europe in its conquest secondly the amarna letters found in the government offices of the egyptian king ignotan testified to the fact that the egyptian empire had extended to western asia syria and palestine and that for centuries egyptian power had been supreme in the ancient worlds this was in the 18th dynasty i.e about 1500 bc we are also told that during the reign of tutmosis iii the domain of egypt extended not only along the coast of palestine but also from nubia to northern asia bredsted's conquest of civilization page 84 diadorus page 128 manito strabo die characters john kendrick's ancient egypt volume 1 2 the authorship of the individual doctrines is extremely doubtful as one attempts to read the history of greek philosophy one discovers a complete absence of essential information concerning the early life and training of the so-called greek philosophers from tallays to aristotle no writer or historian professes to know anything about the early education all they tell us about them consists of a a doubtful date and place of birth and b their doctrines but the world is left to wonder who they were and from what source they got their early education and would naturally expect that men who rose to the position of a teacher among relatives friends and associates would be well known not only by them but by the whole community on the contrary men who might well be placed among the earliest teachers in history who had grown up from childhood to manhood and had taught pupils are represented as unknown being without any domestic social or early educational traces this is unbelievable and yet it is a fact that the history of greek philosophy has presented to the world a number of men whose lives it knows little or nothing about but expects the world to accept them as the true authors of the doctrines which are allowed to be theirs in the absence of essential evidence the world hesitates to recognize them as such because the truth of this whole matter of greek philosophy points to a very different direction the book on nature entitled perry physios was the common name under which greek students interested in nature study wrote the earliest copy is said to date back to the 6th century bc and it is customary to refer to the remnants of peripherals as the fragments william turner's history of philosophy page 62 we do not believe that genuine initiates produced the book on nature since this was contrary to the rules of the egyptian mysteries in connection with which the philosophical schools conducted their work egypt was the center of the body of ancient wisdom and knowledge religious philosophical and scientific spread to other lands through student initiates such teachings remained for generations and centuries in the form of tradition under the conquest of egypt by alexander the great and the movement of aristotle and his school to compile egyptian teaching and claim it as greek philosophy ancient mysteries by c h veil page 16. consequently as a source of authority of authorships perry physios is of little value if any since history mentions only four names as authors of its namely anaximander heracletus parmenides and agoras and asks the world to accept their authorship of philosophy because theophrastus sextus proclass and simplicious of the school at alexandria are said to have preserved small remnants of it the fragments if periphysios is the criterion to the authorship of greek philosophy then it falls short in its purpose by a long way since only four philosophers are allowed alleged to have written this book and to have remnants of their work according to this idea all the other philosophers who failed to write peripherals and do have remnants of it also failed to write greek philosophy this is the reductio ad absurdum to which peripherals leads us the schools of philosophy charles dean greek and persian were part of the ancient mystery system of egypt they were conducted in secrecy according to the demands of the old cyrica whose teachings became common to all the schools in keeping with the demands for secrecy the writing and publication of teachings were strictly forbidden and consequently initiates who had developed satisfactorily in their training and had been advanced to the rank of master or teacher refrained from publishing the teachings or philosophy consequently publication of philosophy could not have come from the pen of the original philosophers themselves but either from their close friends who knew their views as in the case of pythagoras and socrates or from interested persons who made a record of those philosophical teachings that had become popular opinion and tradition there is no wonder then that in the absence of original authorship history has had to resort to the strategy of accepting aristotle's opinion as the sole authority in determining the authorship of greek philosophy introduction to alfred webber's history of philosophy it is for these reasons that great doubt surrounds the so-called greek authorship of philosophy william turner's history of philosophy pages 35 39 47 53 62 79 210 and 11 627 ancient mysteries by c h veil page 16. theophrastus fragment 2 introduction to alfred webber's history of philosophy 3 the chronology of greek philosophers is mere speculation history knows nothing about the early life and training of the greek philosophers and thus it's true not only of the pre-socratic philosophers but also of socrates plato and aristotle who appear in history about the age of 18 and begin to teach at 40. as a body of men they were undesirable to the state pasane non grata and were consequently driven into hiding and secrecy under such circumstances they kept no records of their activities this was done in order to conceal their identity after the conquest of egypt by alexander the great and the seizure and looting of the royal library at alexandria aristotle's plan to usurp egyptian philosophy was subsequently carried out by members of his school theophrastus andronicus of rhodes and eudemus who soon found themselves confronted with the problem of a chronology for a history of philosophy introduction of zeller's history page 13. throughout this effort there has been much speculation concerning the date of birth of philosophers whom the public knew very little about as early as the third century bc 274 to 194 bc eras denise a stoic drew up a chronology of greek philosophers and in the second century bc 140 apollo doris also drew up another the effort continued and in the first century bc 60 to 70 bc and veronica's the 11th head of the peripatetic school also drew up another this difficulty continued throughout the early centuries and has come down to the present time for it appears that all modern writers on greek philosophy are unable to agree on the dates that should be assigned to the nativity of the philosophers the only exception appears to occur with reference to the three athenian philosophers i.e socrates plato and aristotle the date of whose nativity is believed to be certain and concerning which there is general agreement among historians however when we come to deal with the pre-socratic philosophers we are confronted with confusion and uncertainty and a few examples would serve to illustrate the untrustworthy nature nature of the chronology of greek philosophers one de arjunis laertas places the birth of talis at bc while william turner's history of philosophy places it at 620 bc that of frank philly at 624 bc that of ak rogers at early in the 6th century bc and that of wg tenement at 600 bc two diagones laertes places the birth of anaximenes at 546 bc while w wendell brand places it at century bc that of frank philly at 588 bc that of bd alexander at 560 bc while that of ak rogers at the sixth century bc three parmenides is credited by diogenes as being born at 500 bc while fuller philly and rogers omit a date of birth because they say it is unknown for zeller places the birth of xenophonies at 576 bc while diogenes gives 570 bc and the majority of the other historians declare that the date of birth is unknown five with reference to xeno diogenes who does not know the date of his birth says that he flourished between bc 464 to 460 while william turner places it at 490 bc like frank philly and bd alexander while fuller ak rogers and w g tenerman declare it as unknown six with references to heracletus zeller makes the following suppositions if he died in 475 bc and if he was 60 years old when he died then he must have been born in 535 bc similarly dihydrogenesis supposed that he flourished between 504 and 500 and while william turner places his birth at 5 30 bc wendell brand places it at 536 bc and fuller and tenement declare that he flourished in 500 bc 7 with reference to pythagoras zeller who does not know the date of his birth supposes that it occurred between the years 580 and 570 bc and while diagenes also supports that it occurred between the years 582 and 500 bc william turner fuller rogers and tenement declare that it is unknown with reference to empedocles while diogenes places his birth at 484 bc turner wendell brand fuller bd alexander and tenement place it at 490 bc while ak rogers and others declare it as unknown 10 with reference to lucidus all historians seem to be of the opinion that he has never existed 11 socrates 469 to 399 bc plato 427 347 bc and aristotle 384 to 322 bc are the only three philosophers the dates of whose nativity and death do not seem to have led to speculation among historians but the reason for this uniformity is probably due to the fact that they were athenians and had been indicted by the athenian government who naturally have investigated them and kept a record of their cases ak rogers history of philosophy page 104 it must be noted from the preceding comparative study of the chronology of greek philosophers that a the variation in dates points to speculation b the pre-socratic philosophers were unknown because they were foreigners to the athenian government probably never existed see it follows that both the pre-socratic socratic philosophers together with socrates plato and aristotle were persecuted by the athenian government for introducing foreign doctrines doctrines into athens the consequence of these facts any subsequent claim by the greeks to the ownership or authorship of these same doctrines which they had rejected and prosecuted must be regarded as a usurpation four the compilation of the history of greek philosophy was the plan of aristotle executed by his school when aristotle decided to compile a history of greek philosophy he must have made known his wishes to his pupils theophastus and eudemus for no sooner did he produce his metaphysics then theophastic followed him by publishing 18 books on the doctrines of the physicists similarly after theophastus had published his doctrines of the physicists eudemus produced separate histories of arithmetic geometry astrology and also theology this was an amazing start because of the large number of scientific books and the wide range of subjects treated this situation was rightly aroused arouse the submission suspicion of the world as it questions the source of these scientific works since theophrastus and eudemus were students under aristotle at the same time and since the conquest of egypt by alexander the great made the egyptian library at alexandria available to the greeks for research then it must be expected that the three men aristotle who was a close friend of alexander theophastus and eudemus not only did research at the alexandrine library at the same time but must also have helped themselves to books which enabled them to follow each other so closely into production of scientific works william turner's history of philosophy page 158 159 which were either a portion of the war booty taken from the library or compilations from them note that aristotle's works revealed the signs of note taking and that theophrastus and eudemus were pupils attending aristotle school at the same time william turner's history of philosophy page 127 just here it might be as well to mention the names of aristotle's pupils who took an active part in promoting the movement toward the compilation of a history of greek philosophy a the fastest of lesbos 371 286 bc who succeeded aristotle as head of the peripatetic school as elsewhere mentioned he is said to have produced 18 books on the doctrines of physicists who are these physicists greek or egyptians just think of it be eudemus of rhodes a contemporary of theophasis with whom he also attended aristotle school he is said to have produced histories of arithmetic geometry astronomy and theology as elsewhere mentioned what was the source of the data of the histories of these sciences which must have taken any nation thousands of years to develop greece or egypt just think of it c andronicus of rhodes an eclectic of aristotle school and editor of his works 70 bc these men's works together with aristotle's metaphysics which contained a critical summary of the doctrines of all preceding philosophers seem to form the nucleus of a compilation of what has been called a history of greek philosophy zeller's history of greek philosophy introduction pages 7 to 14 the next movement was the organization of an association called the learn study of aristotle's writings whose members were theophrastus and andronicus who were both closely connected with the school of aristotle the function of this association was to identify the literature and doctrines of philosophy with their so-called respective authors and in order to accomplish this the unknown alumni of aristotle school and its friends were encouraged to enter upon a research for aristotle's works and to write commentaries on them in addition to this the learned association also encouraged research for the recovery of what has been named fragments or remnants of a book which is supposed to have once existed and to have borne the common title perry physios i.e concerning nature here again those who went out in search of peripherals or its remnants were the alumni of aristotle school and its friends but their efforts to establish authorship was a failure a theophrastus found only two lines of periphysios supposed to have been written by anaximander b sextus and proclass of the fifth century a and simplicius of the 6th century a.d are said to have found a copy of peripherals supposed to have been produced by parmenides see in addition the name of simplicius is also associated with a copy of peripherals which is supposed to have been produced by enact sagorus so much for periphysios and the fragments and so much for the attempt of the learned association for the study of aristotle's works which has failed because of lack of evidence as has elsewhere been pointed out the recovery of two copies and two lines of peripherals is not proof that all greek philosophers wrote very physios or even that the names assigned to them were their bona fide authors it certainly would appear that the object of the learned association was to beat aristotle's own drum and dance it was aristotle's idea to compile a history of philosophy and it was outstanding school and its alumni that carried out the idea we are told end of chapter one stolen legacy greek philosophy is stolen egyptian philosophy by george g m james chapter 2 so-called greek philosophy was alien to the greeks and their conditions of life the period of greek philosophy 640 to 322 bc was a period of internal and external wars and was therefore unsuitable for producing philosophers history supports the fact that from the time of thales to the time of aristotle the greeks were victims of internal disunion on the one hand while on the other they lived in constant fear of invasion from the persians who were a common enemy to the city-states consequently when they were not fighting with one another they found themselves busy fighting the persians who soon dominated them and became their masters from the 6th century bc the territory from the coast of asia minor to the indus valley became united under the single power of persia whose central territory iran has survived as a national unit to the present day persian expansion was like a nightmare to the greeks who dreaded the persians on account of their invulnerable navy and organize themselves into leagues and confederacies in order to resist their enemy there are three sources which throw light on the chaotic and troublesome conditions of this period in greek history a the persian conquest be the leagues and c the peloponnesian wars a the persian conquest after the persians had conquered the ionians possibly against ancient hittites and made them their subjects pilacrities 539 to 527 bc seized the island of samos and made it a famous city between 499 and 494 bc the ionians revolted against the persians who defeated them at the lad while cyprus and miletus were also captured in the summer of 490 bc greek and persian forces met at marathon but after a hand-to-hand fight both belligerents withdrew only to prepare stronger forces in order to renew the conflict accordingly after 10 years had elapsed a hellenic league was organized against the persians and the spartan king leonidas was sent with an army to hold the pass at thermopylae until the fleet should win a decisive victory accordingly during the month of august 481 bc persian ships under the command of xerxes anchored in the gulf of pagase while the greeks anchored off cape artemysium both sides awaited a favorable opportunity to attack the persians began to force the pass while simultaneously one of their detachments was secretly aided by a greek trader along a steep mountain pass to the rear of the greek position having been taken by surprise the greek guards immediately withdrew without resistance the spartans who were guarding thermopylae were all slain in the past captured by the persians having been defeated at thermopylae the greeks withdrew to salamis where again they encountered a naval engagement with the persians it was late in september 481 bc and the result was a wonton destruction of ships on both sides without any decision both belligerents withdrew the persians to thessaly and the greeks to attica with the persistent aim of freedom from persian domination athens together with the island and coast cities of the aegean and ionia renewed their resistance of persian rule this was the confederacy of delos which undertook several naval engagements but with little or no success in 467 bc the battle of uramadan river was fought and lost with a great number of ships 18 years later 449 bc another naval engagement took place off the island of cyprus but again without decision and consequently persian sovereignty over the greeks remained in the meantime sparta under the terms of the treaty of miletus 413 bc obtained subsidies from persia for naval construction on condition that she recognized persian sovereignty over the ionians and their allies this was done by sparta as a threat to athenian ambitions however it was not long after the treaty of miletus that the greeks themselves submitted to the authority and dominance of the persians during the winter 387 to 386 bc the individual ionian cities signed the peace terms of the persian king and finally accepted persian rule this treaty was negotiated by a spartan envoy who was authorized by the persian king to enforce its provisions be the leagues apart from the resistance of a common foe the persians a study of the functions of the leagues reveals the enmity and spirit of aggression which were characteristic of the relationship which existed between the greek city-states themselves accordingly in 505 bc the peloponnesian states signed treaties among themselves pledging warfare against sparta who had absorbed them under her influence meanwhile aristo goris revived the ionian league 499 to 494 bc to resist persian aggression and friendship between athens and aegena was restored by the hellenic league 481 bc which was afterward converted into the confederacy of delos 478 bc as mentioned elsewhere in like manner thieves also fell in line with the general temper of the age and organized the boetian league a federation of city-states for self-protection and aggression in 377 bc a second athenian confederacy was organized but this was to frustrate the aims of the last demonians and to compel them to respect the right of the athenians and their allies likewise in 290 bc the aytonian league made up of the states of central greece gained control of delphi and frequently violated akin rights in the peloponnesis while in 225 bc antagonist docen organized another hellenic league with the purpose of obstructing the ambitions of sparta and her atolian allies see the peloponnesian wars 460 to 445 bc and 431 to 421 bc owing to the ambitions of athens to dominate the ionians and other neighboring peoples pericles launched a campaign of alliances and conquests extending from thessaly to argos and from eubora to narctus akia and the chief islands of the ionian sea the net results were as follows a athens established alliances with boesha fosus and lacris in spite of sparta's opposition b in 456 bc aegena was captured and made tributary c in 450 bc athens failed in her attempt to invade corinth d in 451 friendship between athens and sparta was restored through the instrumentality of simon on the condition that athenian alliance with argos was dissolved e in 447 bc the exiled oligarchs of thebes defeated the athenians at cornea and re-established the boeshian league under thebian leadership f in 445 bc the 30 years piece was signed and after the revolt of uobia and maguera sparta invaded attica and pericles sued for peace athens lost all her continental holdings the second peloponnesian war 431 to 421 bc like that of the first arose through a general split spirit of rebellion among the greek city-states against athenian imperialism sparta being the chief enemy the net results were as follows a in 435 bc war between corsira and corinth courseira being aided by athens b in 432 bc one athens blockaded portiere because she refused to dismantle her southern walls and dismiss her corinthian magistrates two maguera was excluded from greek markets in order to reduce her to subjection three the peloponnesian league planned war against athens and boisha fosus and lacris were to fight against athens course ira and a few northern states c in 431 bc one thieves attacked plateau and while a peloponnesian army occupied attica the athenian fleet raided peloponnesis 2. pericles being unable to defend attica adequately transferred the civil population every spring to the area between the walls of athens and the paraus in the meantime the athenian fleet operated against podia the peloponnesian coast and corinthian commerce d in 428 bc one midalene and all the cities of lesbos revolted two a brutal massacre of oligarchs took place at corsira e in 425 bc one a laconian force at pylos was captured and a fort was established through demosthenes and cleon two cythira and other stations were fortified against the peloponnesians three amphipolis was captured by brexitus h barton who had instigated rebellion among the athenian allies and after brass dias and cleon had been killed in battle 422 bc athens authorized niceas to sue for peace it is obvious from his study of the causes and effects of the peloponnesian wars that a the greek states were envious of each other and b the desire for power and expansion led to constant aggression and warfare among themselves see the condition of constant warfare between the city-states was unfavorable for the production of philosophers before passing on to consider my next proposition i would like to say that it is an accepted truth that the development of philosophical thought requires an environment which is free from disturbance and worries the period commonly assigned to greek philosophy i.e dallas to aristotle was exactly the opposite to one of peace and tranquility and therefore it could not be expected to produce philosophy the obstacles against the origin and development of greek philosophy were not only the frequency of civil wars and the constant defense against persian aggression but also the threat of extermination from the athenian government its worst enemy d philosophy requires a suitable environment i must now add the following quotation which depicts this period quote for although the natural ills that beset mankind are many we ourselves have added to them by wars and civil strife against one another so that some have been unjustly put to death in their own cities others driven into exile with their wives and children and many have been compelled for the sake of their deadly bread to die fighting against their own people for the sake of the enemy socrates end of chapter two chapter three greek philosophy was the offspring of the egyptian mystery system one the egyptian theory of salvation became the purpose of greek philosophy the earliest theory of salvation is the egyptian theory the egyptian mystery system had as its most important object the deification of man and taught that the soul of man if liberated from its bodily fetters could enable him to become god-like and see the gods in this life and attain the beatific vision and hold communion with the immortals platinus defines this experience as the liberation of the mind from its finite consciousness when it becomes one and is identified with the infinite this liberation was not only freedom of the soul from bodily impediments but also from the wheel of reincarnation or rebirth it involved a process of disciplines or purification both for the body and the soul since the mystery system offered the salvation of the soul it also placed great emphasis upon its immortality the egyptian mystery system like the modern university was the center of organized culture and candidates entered it as the leading source of ancient culture according to pitchman the egyptian mysteries had three grades of students one the mortals i.e probationary students who were being instructed but also who had not yet experienced the inner vision to the intelligences i.e those who had attained the innovation and had received mind or noose and three the creators or sons of lights who had become identified with or united with the light i.e true spiritual consciousness w marsham adams in the book of the master has described those grades as the equivalence of initiation illumination and perfection for years they underwent disciplinary intellectual exercises and bodily asceticism with intervals of tests and ordeals to determine their fitness to proceed to the more serious solemn and awful process of actual initiation their education consisted not only in the cultivation of the ten virtues which were made a condition to enter eternal happiness but also of the seven liberal arts which were intended to liberate the soul there was also admission to the greater mysteries where an esoteric philosophy was taught to those who had demonstrated their proficiency rhetoric and logic were disciplines of moral nature by means of which the irrational tendencies of a human being were purged away and he was trained to become a living witness of the divine logos geometry and arithmetic were sciences of transcendental transcendental space and numeration the comprehension of which provided the key not only to the problems of one's being but also to those physical ones which are so baffling today owing to our use of the inductive methods astronomy dealt with the knowledge and distribution of latent forces in man and the destiny of individuals racists and nations music or harmony meant the living practice of philosophy i.e the adjustment of human life into harmony with god until the personal soul became identified with god when it would hear and participate in the music of the spheres it was therapeutic and was used by the egyptian priest in the cure of diseases such was the egyptian theory of salvation through which the individual was trained to become god-like while on earth and at the same time qualified for everlasting happiness this was accomplished through the efforts of the individual through the cultivation of the arts and sciences on the one hand and a life of virtue on the other there was no mediator between man and his salvation as we find in the christian theory reference will again be made to these subjects as part of the curriculum of the egyptian mystery system now that we have outlined the egyptian theory of salvation and its purpose let us examine greek philosophy and its purpose in order to discover whether there is an agreement between the two systems or not two circumstances of identity between the egyptian and greek systems a the indictment and prosecutions of greek philosophers the indictment and prosecution of greek philosophers is a circumstance which is familiar to us all several philosophers one after another were indicted by the athenian government on the common charge of introducing strange divinities anax agoras socrates and aristotle received similar indictments for a similar offense the most famous of these was that against socrates which reads as follows quote socrates commits a crime by not believing in the gods of the city and by introducing other new divinities he also commits the crime by corrupting the youth end quote now in order to find out what these new divinities were we must go back to the popular opinion which aristophanes 423 bc in the clouds aroused against him it runs as follows socrates is an evil doer who busies himself with investigating things beneath the earth and in the sky and who makes the worst appear the better reason and who teaches others the same things plato's apology one to ten aristophanes frogs 1071 apology 18 bc 19 apology 24 b it is clear then that socrates offended the athenian government simply because he pursued the study of astronomy and probably that of geology and that the other philosophers were persecuted for the same reason but the study of science was a required condition to membership in the egyptian mystery system and its purpose was the liberation of the soul from the ten bodily fetters and if the greek philosophers studied the sciences then they were fulfilling a required condition to membership in the egyptian mystery system and its purpose either through direct contact with egypt or schools or lodges outside its territory b a life of virtue was a condition required by the egyptian mysteries as elsewhere mentioned the virtues were not mere abstractions or ethical sentiments but were positive valors and virility of the soul temperance meant complete control of the passionate nature fortitude meant such courage as would not allow adversity to turn us away from our goal prudence meant the deep insight that befits the faculty of seership justice meant the unswerving righteousness of thought and action furthermore when we complete compare the two ethical systems we discover that the greater includes the less and that it also suggests the origin of the latter in the egyptian mysteries the neophyte was required to manifest the following soul attributes one control of thought and two control of action the combination of which plato called justice i.e the unswerving righteousness of thought and action three steadfastness of purpose which was equivalent to fortitude for identity with spiritual life or the higher ideals which was equivalent to temperance an attribute attained when the individual had gained conquest over the passional nature five evidence of having a mission in life and six evidence of a call to spiritual orders or the priesthood in the mysteries the combination of which was equivalent to prudence or a deep insight and graveness that befitted the faculty of searship other requirements in the ethical system of the egyptian mysteries were seven freedom from resentment when under the experience of persecution and wrong this was known as courage eight confidence in the power of the master as teacher and nine confidence in one's own ability to learn both attributes being known as fidelity 10 readiness or preparedness for initiation there has always been this principle of the ancient mysteries of egypt when the pupil is ready then the master will appear this was equivalent to a condition of efficiency at all times for less than this pointed to a weakness it is now quite clear that plato drew the four cardinal virtues from the egyptian ten also that greek philosophy is the offspring of the egyptian mystery system see there was a grand lodge in egypt which had associated schools and lodges in the ancient world there were mystery schools or what we would commonly call lodges in greece and other lands outside of egypt whose work was carried on according to the osirica the grand lodge of egypt such schools have frequently been referred to as private or philosophic mysteries and their founders were initiates of the egyptian mysteries the ionian temple a dydema the lodge of euclid at maguera the large of pythagoras echo ekfotona and the orphic temple at delphi with the schools of plato and aristotle consequently we make a mistake when we suppose that the so-called greek philosophers formulated new doctrines of their own for their philosophy had been handed down by the great egyptian hierophants through the mysteries in addition to the control of the mysteries the grand lodge permitted an exchange of visits between the various lodges in order to ensure the progress of the brethren and the secret science we are told in the timmius of plato that aspirants from mystical wisdom visited egypt for initiation and we're told by the priest of the science that you greeks are but children in the secret doctrine but were admitted to information enabling them to promote their spiritual advancement likewise we are told by jim plitches of a correspondence between a nebo and porphyry dealing with the fraternal relations existing between the various schools or lodges of instructions in different lands how their members visited greeted and assisted one another in the secret science the more advanced being obliged to afford assistance and instruction to their brethren in their inferior orders having stated that the grand lodge of ancient mysteries was situated in egypt with jurisdiction over all lodges and schools of the ancient world it now remains to show that such a grand lodge did actually and physically exist in doing so two things are necessary first a description of the egyptian temple of which our modern mystery lodges called by different names are copies and second a description of the actual remains of the grand and sublime lodge of ancient egypt see a description of the egyptian temple here i quote two authorities on the egyptian temple the first ch veil on ancient mysteries page 159 who says quotes that the egyptian temples were surrounded with pillars recording the number of the constellations and the signs of the zodiac or the cycles of the planets and each temple was supposed to be a microcosm or a symbol of the temple of the universe or of the star revolt called temple end quotes the next authority is max mueller who in his egyptian mythology pages 187 to has described the egyptian temples as follows quote egyptian temples were made of stone the outer courts of mud bricks wide roads led to the temples for the convenience of processions while the immediate entrance was lined with statues consisting of sphinxes and other animals the front wall formed two high tower like buildings called pylons before which stood to granite obelisk immediately behind the pylons came a large court with the congregation assembled and watched the sacrifices immediately next to the whole of the congregation came the hall of priests and immediately following the hall of the priests came the final chamber called the aditum i.e the holy of holies which was entered only by the high priest this was the place of the shrine and the abode of the god each temple was a reproduction of the world the ceilings were painted to represent the sky and the stars while the floor was given green and blue like the metals ceremonial cleanliness was at all times imperative and the people before entering the temple must carefully purify themselves in a nearby stream and latter times this became a ceremony of sprinkling with holy water before entering into the temple end quote it is clear from the foregoing description that not only the modern masonic largest copies of the egyptian temple but also the ancient ones for this complete identity in their internal decoration but the minor or lower largest including those outside of egypt must have had a governing body and so now i proceed to quote ch veil who in his ancient mysteries pages 182 and 183 describes fully the location and remains of the famous grand lodge of luxor as follows see the location of the masonic grand lodge of antiquity quote at a short distance from dandera now called upper egypt is the most extraordinary group of architectural ruins presented in any part of the world known as the temples of the ancient city of thebes thebes in its prime occupied a large area on both sides of the nile this city was the center of the great commercial nation of upper egypt ages before memphis was the capital of the second nation in lower egypt and however grand the architectural monuments of the latter may have been those of the former surpassed them the portrayal by pencil or brush can convey but a faint idea of the perfected city as the city stands today it is like a city of giants who after a long conflict have been destroyed leaving the ruins of their various temples as the only proof of their existence the temple of luxor it was in this temple that the grand lodge of initiates always met stands on a raised platform of brickwork covering more than two thousand feet in length and one thousand feet in breadth note the oblong shape which became the pattern for all lodges and churches in the ancient world it is the one that interests the members of all ancient orders especially so all the members of those orders that worshipped had the shrine of the secret fire more than perhaps any other and stands on the eastern bank of nile it is in a very ruined state but records say the stupendous scale of its proportions almost takes away the sense of its incompleteness up to about a quarter of a century ago the greater part of its columns in the interior and outer walls had been removed after falling for use elsewhere this temple was founded by the pharaoh amanothus the third who constructed the southern part including the heavy colonized overlooking the river but destruction unfortunately conceals this fact the chief entrance to the temple looked to the east while the holy chambers at the upper end of the plane approached the nile as mighty as the temple of luxor was it was exceeded in magnitude and grandeur by that of karnak the distance between these two great structures was a mile and a half along this avenue was a double row of sphinxes placed 12 feet apart and the width of the avenue was 60 feet when in perfect state this avenue presented the most extraordinary entrance that the world has ever seen if we had the power to picture from the field of imagination the grand processions of neophytes constantly passing through and taking part in the ceremonies of initiation we will be powerless to produce the grandeur of the surroundings and the imposing site of color and magnificent trappings of those who took part neither can we produce the magic that kept the vast number of people steady marching order crude it might have been to the cultivated ear of the 20th century but could not the palpitating strain sung by mass voices on the lapse of time whose history launches the profoundest aspirations of the human heart like the trend of a mighty river because the grand currents of universal law imparting the desire to that shadowy past as it steps forth from the pages of history dim with aids egypt must have been when these temples were built a martial nation for records of her warlike are perpetuated and deeply engraved tablets which even now excite the admiration of the best judges of archeological remains she was also a highly civilized nation and of a nature that could bear the expenditure which always attends the culture of the arts she surpassed in her astonishing architecture all of the nations that existed on the earth i am fully convinced by these references and quotations that an egyptian grand lodge of ancient mysteries actually existed some five thousand years ago or more on the banks of the nile in the city of deebs and that it was the only grand lodge of the ancient world whose ruins have been found in egypt and that it was the governing body which necessarily controlled the ancient mysteries together with the philosophical schools and minor largest wherever they happen to have been organized see the rebuilding of the temple of delphi the temple of delphi was burnt down in 548 bc and it was king amasses of egypt who rebuilt it for the brethren by donating three times as much as was needed in the sum of one thousand talents and fifty thousand pounds of alum according to information at hand the temple had organized its members into a league for protection against political and other forms of violence but they were too poor to raise sufficient funds from the membership and they decided upon a public contribution from the citizens of greece accordingly they wandered throughout the land soliciting aid but failed in their efforts having decided to visit the brethren in egypt they approached king amasses who as grand master unhesitatingly offered to rebuild the temple and donated more than three times as much as was needed for the purpose here it would be well to note that the greeks regarded the temple of delphi as a foreign institution hence they were unsympathetic towards it and for the same reason destroyed it by fire clearly the temple of delphi was a branch of the egyptian mystery system projected in greece three the abolition of greek philosophy together with the egyptian mysteries from the conquest of egypt by alexander the great the greeks who were always attracted by the mysterious worship of the nile land began to imitate the egyptian religion in its entirety and during the roman occupation the egyptian religion spread not only to italy but but throughout the roman empire including brittany the assimilation of the egyptian religion was confirmed confined to the gods of the austrian cycle in the greco egyptian therapists and aimed at a close imitation of the ancient traditions of the nile land owing to the splendor of architecture the hieroglyphs of the temples the obelisk and spanx's before the shrines the linen investments and the shaving heads and faces of the priests the endless and obscure ritual filled the greeks with all and wonderful mysteries were consequently believed to have underlain these incomprehensibles and the egyptian religion stood in the way of the rising christianity the success of the egyptian religion was no doubt on the one hand to its conservatism while on the other hand to the shadowy philosophical abstractions which constituted greco-roman religion so that the start faith of the egyptians together with their mysterious forms of worship led to the universal conviction among the ancients that egypt was not only the holy land but the holiest of lands or countries and that indeed the gods wrote there the nile became a center for pilgrimages in the ancient world and the pilgrims who went there and experienced the marvelous revelations and spiritual blessings which it afforded them returned home with the conviction that the nile was the home of the most profound religious knowledge the greeks failed to imitate egyptian conservatism and not only in egyptian cities with large greek population but in europe egyptian divinities were corrupted with greek and asiatic names and mythologies and reduced to vague pantheistic personalities so that isis and osiris had retained very little of their egyptian origin consequently as they failed to advance egyptian philosophy so they also failed to advance egyptian religion during the first four centuries of the christian era the religion of egypt continued unabated and uninterrupted but after the edict of theodosius at the end of the 4th century a.d ordering the clothes of the egyptian temples christianity began to spread more rapidly and both the religion of egypt and that of greece began to die in the island of philly in the first cataract of the nile however the egyptian religion was continued by its inhabitants the bulemians and nobelians who refused to accept christianity and the roman government fearing a rebellion paid tribute to them as an appeasement during the 6th century a.d however justinian issued a second edict which suppressed this remnant of egyptian worshipers and propagated christianity among the nubians with the death of the last high priest who could read and interpret quote the writings of the words of the gods the hieroglyphics the egyptian faith sank into oblivion it was only in popular magic that some practices lingered on as traces of a faith that became a universal religion or the survival of a statue of isis and horus which were regarded as the madonna and childs a sentiment of admiration and awe for the strangest of all religions still survived but the information from classical writers concerning this faith has been incomplete napoleon's invasion of egypt brought a revival of interest from the west to decipher her inscriptions and papyri with a view to an understanding and appreciation of this most ancient of civilizations we learn the following facts from the above quotations the egyptian mysteries have become the ancient world religion spreading throughout the roman empire including italy greece asia minor and various parts of europe including brittany this continued under different names long after justinian's edict of toleration granted to the christians egypt was the holy land of the ancient world that pilgrimages were made to that land because of the marvelous revelations and spiritual blessings which it afforded the ancient peoples and because of the universal conviction among the ancients that egypt was the land of the gods the edicts of theodosius in the 4th century a.d and that of justinian in the 6th century a.d abolish the light not only the mystery system of egypt but also its philosophical schools located in greece and elsewhere outside of egypt the abolition of the egyptian mysteries was to create an opportunity for the adoption of christianity this was the problem the roman government felt that egypt was now conquered in arms and reduced to our knees but in order to make the conquest complete it would be necessary to abolish the mysteries which still controlled the religious mind of the ancient world there must be a new world religion to take the place of the egyptian religion this new religion which should take the place of the mysteries must be equally powerful and universal and consequently everything possible must be done in order to promote its interests this explains the rapid growth of christianity following justinian's edict of toleration since the edicts of theodosius and justinian abolished both the mysteries of egypt and the schools of greek philosophy alike it shows that the nature of the egyptian mysteries and greek philosophy was identical and that greek philosophy grew out of the egyptian mysteries four how the african continent gave its culture to the western world as mentioned elsewhere the egyptian mysteries and the philosophical schools of greece were closed by the edicts of theodosius in the 4th century a.d and that of justinian in the 6th century a.d i.e 529 and as a consequence intellectual darkness spread over christian europe and the greco roman world for ten centuries during which time knowledge had disappeared as stated elsewhere the greeks showed no creative powers and when unable to improve upon the knowledge which they had received from the egyptians during the persian greek and roman invasions large numbers of egyptians fled not only to the desert and mountain regions but also to adjacent lands in africa arabia and asia minor where they lived and secretly deployed the teachings which belonged to their mystery system in the 8th century a.d the morse i.e natives of mauritania in north africa invaded spain and took with them the egyptian culture which they had preserved knowledge in the ancient days was centralized i.e it belonged to a common parent and system i.e the wisdom teachings or mysteries of egypt which the greeks used to call sophia as such the people of north africa were the neighbors of the egyptians and became the custodians of egyptian culture which they spread through considerable portions of africa asia minor and europe during the occupation of spain the more is displayed with considerable credit the grandeur of african culture and civilization the schools and libraries which they established became famous throughout the medieval world science and learning were cultivated and taught the schools of cordova toledo seville and saragosa attained such celebrity that they like their parent egypt attracted students from all parts of the western world and from them arose the most famous african professors that the world has ever known in medicine surgery astronomy and mathematics but these people from north africa did more than merely distinguish themselves in spain they were really the recognized custodians of african culture to whom the world looked for enlightenment consequently through the medium of the ancient arabic language philosophy and the various branches of science were disseminated all the so-called works of aristotle and metaphysics moral philosophy and natural science translations by leonardo pisano in arabic mathematical science translation by goddale a monk of a rezzo and musical notation in addition the moors kept up constant contact with mother egypt for they had established caliphates not only at baghdad and cordova but also at cairo in egypt just here it would be well to mention that all the great leaders of the great religions of antiquity were initiates of the egyptian mystery system from moses who was an egyptian hieroglyphic down to christ it should also be of interest to know that european scientists like roger bacon johannes kepler copernicus and others obtained their science through arab or berber sources it is also noteworthy that through the middle ages european knowledge of medicine came from these sources end of chapter three stolen legacy greek philosophy is stolen egyptian philosophy by george g m james chapter four the egyptians educated the greeks one the effects of the persian conquest a immigration restrictions against the greeks are removed and egypt is thrown open to greek research owned to the practice of piracy in which the ionians and clarions were active the egyptians were forced to make immigration laws restricting the immigration of the greeks and punishing their infringement by capital punishment i.e the sacrifice of the victim before the time of semiticus the greeks were not allowed to go beyond the coast of lower egypt but during his reign and that of a masses those conditions were modified for the first time in egyptian history ionians and carrions were employed as mercenaries in the egyptian army 670 bc interpretation was organized through a body of interpreters and the greeks began to gain useful information concerning the culture of the egyptians in addition to these changes king ammasis removed the restrictions against the greeks and permitted them to enter egypt and settle in norcratis about the same time i.e the reign of a masses the persians through cambises invaded egypt and the whole country was thrown open to the researchers of the greeks be the genesis of greek enlightenment the persian invasion did not only provide the greeks with ample research but stimulated the creation of prose history in ionia heretofore the greeks had little or no accurate knowledge of egyptian culture but their contact with egypt resulted in the genesis of their enlightenment see students from ionia and the islands of the aegean visit egypt for their education just as in our modern times countries like the united states england and france are attracting students from all parts of the world on account of their leadership and culture so was it in ancient times egypt was supreme in the leadership of civilization and students from all parts flock to that land seeking admission into her mysteries or wisdom system the immigration of greeks to egypt for the purpose of their education began as a result of the persian invasion 525 bc and continued unto the greeks gained possession of that land and access to the royal library through the conquest of alexander the great alexandria was converted into a greek city a center of research and the capital of the newly created greek empire under the rule of ptolemies egyptian culture survived and flourished under the name and control of the greeks unto the edicts of theodosius in the 4th century a.d and that of justinian in the 6th century a.d which closed the mystery temples and schools as elsewhere mentioned concerning the fact that egypt was the greatest education center of the ancient world which was also visited by the greeks reference must again be made to plato in the timaeus who tells us that greek aspirants to wisdom visited egypt for initiation and that the priests of sais used to refer to them as children in the mysteries as regards the visit of greek students to egypt for the purpose of their education the following are mentioned simply to establish the fact that egypt was regarded as the educational center of the ancient world and that like the jews the greeks also visited egypt and received their education one it is said that during the reign of a masses dalais who is said to have been born about bc visited egypt and was initiated by the egyptian priest into the mystery system and science of the egyptians we are also told that during his residence in egypt he learned astronomy land surveying menstruation engineering and egyptian theology two it is said that pythagoras a native of samos traveled frequently to egypt for the purpose of his education like every aspirant he had to secure the consent and favor of the priest and we are informed by diogenes that a friendship existed between polycrates of samuels and the masses king of egypt that polycrates gave pythagoras letters of introduction to the king who secured for him an introduction to the priest first to the priest of hilapias then to the priest of memphis and lastly to the priests of thieves to each of whom pythagoras gave a silver goblet we are also further informed through herodotus that after severe trials including circumcision had been imposed upon him by the egyptian priest he was finally initiated into all their secrets that he learned the doctrine of medium psychosis of which there was no trace before in the greek religion that his knowledge of medicine and strict system of dietetic rules distinguished him as a product of egypt where medicine had attained its highest perfection and that his attainments in geometry corresponded with the ascertain fact that egypt was the birthplace of that science in addition we have the statements of plutarch demetrius and anesthetis that pythagoras founded the science of mathematics among the greeks and that he sacrificed to the muses when the priest explained to him the properties of the right angle triangle three according to diogenes laertes and herodotus democritus is said to have been born about 400 bc and to have been a native of abdera and militis we are also told by demetrius in his treaties on quote people of the same name end quote and by antisthenes in his treatise on quote succession that democritus traveled to egypt for the purpose of his education and received the instruction of the priest we also learned from diogenes and herodotus that he spent five years under the instruction of the egyptian priest and that after the completion of his education he wrote a treatise on the sacred characters of morale in this respect we further learn from origin that circumcision was compulsory and one of the necessary conditions of initiation to a knowledge of the hieroglyphics and sciences of the egyptians and it is obvious that democritus in order to obtain such knowledge must have submitted also to that right origen who was a native of egypt wrote as follows no one among the egyptians either studied geometry or investigated the secrets of astronomy unless circumcision had been undertaken four concerning plato's travels we are told by hermodaurus that at the age of 28 plato visited euclid at maguera in company with other pupils of socrates and that for the next 10 years he visited cyrene italy and finally egypt where he received instruction from the egyptian priests five with regards to socrates and aristotle and the majority of pre-socrates socratic philosophers history seems to be silent on the question of their traveling to egypt like the few other students here mentioned for the purpose of their education it is enough to say that in this case the exceptions have proved the rule that all students who had the means went to egypt to complete their education the fact that history fails to supply a fuller account of this type of immigration might be due to some or all of the following reasons eight the immigration laws against the greeks up to the time of king ammasis and the persian invasion be pro's history was undeveloped among the greeks during the period of their educational immigration to egypt see the greek authorities persecuted and drove students of philosophy into hiding and consequently d students of the mystery system concealed their movements let us remember that anaxigorus was indicted and in prison that he escaped and fled to his home in ionia that socrates was indicted imprisoned and condemned to death and that both plato and aristotle fled from athens under great suspicion 2 the effects of the conquest of egypt by alexander the great a the royal library and museum together with temples and other libraries are looted as elsewhere mentioned it was an ancient custom of invading armies to loot libraries and temples in order to capture books and manuscripts which were regarded as great treasures a few instances would be enough to verify this custom a we are informed that during the persian invasion beginning with cambises the temples of egypt were not only stripped of their gold and silver but rifled for their ancient records every egyptian temple carried a secret library with secret manuscripts and books b we are also informed that when athens was captured by the romans in 84 bc the library of books said to have belonged to aristotle was also captured and taken to rome just as in the invasion of egypt by the persians the invading army stripped the temples of their gold silver and sacred books and just as in the capture of athens by the romans sulla carried off the only library of books which he found so it is to be expected of alexander the great and his invasion of egypt one of the first things that he and his companions and armies would do would be to search for the treasures of the land and capture them these were kept in temples and libraries and consisted of gold and silver out of which the gods and ceremonial vessels were made and sacred books and manuscripts kept both in libraries and in the quote holy of holies of temples it is my firm belief that this indeed was the great opportunity which alexander gave aristotle and enabled him and his pupils to carry off as many books as they wanted from the royal library and to convert it into a research center apart from the royal library at alexandria there was also another famous library nearby the quote royal library of thieves the theon which was founded by pharaoh seti menethian was completed by ramses ii but little occurs in history about this greatest of egyptian royal libraries however any invading army would first loot the royal library of alexandria and then would turn their attention to the minetheon at thebes they would also visit the cities of memphis and heliopolis and likewise loot their libraries and temples this was the ancient custom and certainly one of the ways in which the greeks received their education from egyptians it is therefore an erroneous belief that the greeks on egyptian soil and through their own native ability set up a great university at alexandria and turned out great scholars on the other hand since it is well known that egypt was the land of temples and libraries we can see how comparatively easy it was for the greeks to strip other egyptian libraries of their books in order to maintain the new library at alexandria after it had been already looted by aristotle and his pupils the greeks i.e alexander the great aristotle school and the succeeding ptolemies converted the royal library of alexanderia into a research center by transferring aristotle school and pupils from athens to this great egyptian library and therefore the students who study there received instructions from egyptian priests and teachers until they died out the difficulty of language and interpretation made it imperative for the greeks to use egyptian teachers the greeks did not carry culture and learning to egypt but found it already there and wisely settled in that country in order to absorb as much as possible of its culture b the royal library of thieves the menethion is described it was also looted by invading armies but when we read a brief sketch of the magnificence of the theban royal library the monaphtheon we even see a better picture and are bound to admit that egypt was the storehouse of ancient culture and that that culture was preserved in the form of literature stored away in her great libraries and temples great as the royal library of alexandria might have been we see in the theban royal library something far more magnificent and far more representative of the true greatness of our ancient egypt on the left of the steps leading to the second courts there is still seen the pedestal of the enormous granite statue of ramses the largest that ever existed in egypt according to diodorus its height has been calculated at 54 feet and its weight at 887 and a quarter tons a marvel to the modern mind the interior face of the wall of the pylon represents the wars of ramses the third the austerite pillars of the second court are the monolith figures 16 cubits in height supplying the place of columns and at the foot of the steps leading from the courts to the next hall beyond there were two sitting statues of the king the head of one of these was of red granite known by the name of quote young memon was taken away by belzoni and is now a principal ornament of the british museum behind this are the remains of a whole 133 feet broad by 100 feet long supported by 48 columns 12 of which are 32 feet in height and 21 feet in circumference on different parts of the columns and the walls are represented acts of homage by the king to the principal deities of the thievin pantheon and the gracious promises which they make him in return in another sculpture the two chief divinities of egypt invest him with the emblems of military and civil dominion i.e the scimitar the scourge and the petum beneath the 23 sons of ramses appear in procession bearing the emblems of their respective high offices in the state their names being inscribed above them nine smaller apartments two of them still preserved and supported by columns lay behind the hall on the jambs of the first of these apartments are sculptured toth the inventor of letters and the goddess staff with the title of quote lady of letters and president of the hall of books accompanied the former with an emblem of the sense of sight and the latter of hearing there is no doubt that this is the sacred library which diodoris describes as the inscribed dispensary of the mind it had an astronomical ceiling in which the 12 egyptian months are represented with an inscription from which important inter inferences have been drawn respecting the chronology of the reign of ramses the third on the walls is a procession of priests carrying the sacred arts and in the next apartment the last that now remains the king is presenting offerings to the various divinities c museum and the library of alexander were used as a university the museum and library of alexandria were so famous in ancient times that we wonder why more information concerning this center of learning has not come down to us a few references to authoritative sources might no doubt help to enlighten us on this matter from sedgwick's and tyler's history of science chapter 5 pages 87 to 119 we learn that the subjugation of egypt by alexander the great in 330 bc had checked the further development of greek civilization on its native soil that after the death of alexander the great in 323 bc his vast empire was divided among his generals and that alexandria the new egyptian capital fell to ptolemy that the city barely 10 years old soon became the center of the learned world and that by 300 bc the museum i.e the seat of the muses was founded and became a veritable university of greek learning that to the museum was attached a great library with a dining hall and lecture rooms for professors and this became a school of philosophers mathematicians and astronomers here for the next 700 years science had its chief abiding place here however it should be remembered that the above statement of sedgwick and tyler is misleading since the greeks did not carry a civilization of their own to egypt but on the contrary found a very highly developed egyptian culture the survival of which was maintained by the use of egyptian priests and scholars as teachers the a military policy of the greeks to commandeer information from the egyptians was put in operation one of the military policies adopted by the greek military authorities at alexandria was the issue of commands to the leading egyptian priests for information concerning the egyptian history philosophy and religion as a custom this is no less ancient than the modern since it is also a custom in modern times for victorious armies to confer with the men of science love and invaded country in order to discover whether or not there is anything new in the field of science which they might possess we would recall how at the end of world war ii the american scientists conferred with the japanese scientists at tokyo accordingly we are told that ptolemy won soder in order to elicit the secrets of egyptian wisdom or mystery system ordered manito the high priest of the temple of isis at cebentus in lower egypt to write the philosophy and the history of the religion of the egyptians accordingly monito published several volumes concerning these respective fields and ptolemy issued an order prohibiting the translation of these books which had to be kept on reserve in the library for instruction of the greeks by the egyptian priests here it becomes quite clear that the first professors of the alexandrian school were the egyptian priests and that the scholars and pupils of aristotle's transfer school received their training directly from the egyptian priests it is also well to note that the chief textbooks of the alexandrian school were beneath those books we are told by apollodorus from whom since ellis drew his information that ptolemy ii ordered arrested niece the cyrenian i.e a black man and native of cyrene and librarian of the alexandrine library to write a chronology of the thebian kings and that lerastines did so with the aid of the egyptian hyrophants at thebes furthermore it became the custom during the greek and roman occupation to use the services of egyptian priests and scholars as professors at the alexandrian school we are told that during the reign of theodosis 378 to 395 a.d the egyptian professor or apollo wrote a system of the egyptian hieroglyphics the hieroglyphia of horopolo which has been regarded as the best that has come down to modern times we are also told that this professor taught not only at the alexandrine school but also at that of constantinople three the egyptians were the first to civilize the greeks greece was first civilized by colonies from egypt then from phoenicia and thrace these were under the government of wise men who not only subdued the ferocity of an ignorant populist by civil institutions but also cast about them the strong chain of religion and the fear of the gods whatever dogmas they had been taught in their respective countries concerning things divine and human they delivered to these newly formed societies with the object of bringing them under the restraint of virtuous discipline feronius and sea crops were egyptians cadmus a phoenician and orpheus a thracian and each of them through their colonies carried into greece the religious and philosophical tenets of his respective country the practice of teaching the doctrines of religion to people under the guise of myth originated from the egyptians and was adopted by the phoenicians and thracians and subsequently introduced to the greeks according to strabo it was not possible in ancient times to lead a promiscuous multitude to religion and virtue by philosophical harangues this could be affected only by the aid of superstition by progenies and fables the thunderbolt the aegis the trident the spear torches and snakes were the instruments made use of by the founders of states to terrify the ignorant and vulgar into subjection these references must speak for themselves keops and sea crops were the names which the greeks used for the egyptian kufu who belonged to the fourth dynasty of the egyptians or the pyramid age ie 2800 bc four alexander visits the oracle of ammon in the oasis of siwa no discussion on alexander's invasion of egypt would be complete without reference to his famous visit to the oracle of ammon situated in the oasis of siwa alexander had placed a garrison and pollution whence he marched through the desert along the eastern bank of the nile to heliopolis where he crossed the river to memphis where his fleet had been awaiting him and where he was welcomed by the egyptians and crowned as pharaoh having sacrificed to apis and other gods alexander descended the nile by the canopic branch and set out on his journey to the oracle of ammon in the oasis of siwa his route was along the coast of libya as far as peritonium when she marched through the desert to the oasis of siwa what do we suppose was alexander's motive for visiting the temple of ammon perhaps a brief description of the religious and economic importance of heliopolis memphis thebes and ammonium might help us to determine what it was in the first place these cities were strongholds of the egyptian religion where there were many rich temples schools and priests and therefore were representative of the egyptian religious life in the second place these cities were centers of education and after the persian invasion greek students who traveled to egypt for the purpose of their education received their training from the priests of one or all of these cities as elsewhere mentioned when pythagoras went to egypt he carried a letter of introduction from polycrytes of samos to king amasses who in turn gave him letters of introduction to the priests of heliopolis memphis and thieves as centers of education the temples and libraries of these cities contained very valuable books and in the third place these regions had been previously captured by the persians for the very fact of their wealth this should explain why they included these districts in which paid them an enormous annual tribute amounting to 700 talents of gold together with the produce of the fisheries of lake morris which amounted to a talent a day during the six months that the water flowed in from the nile and a third part of that sum during the afflicts in addition egypt furnished 120 000 medicine nigh of corn as rations for the persian troops who were stationed in the white fort of memphis the equivalent of this tribute was 170 000 pounds sterling and shows the underlying motive not only of the persian invading armies but also of all invading armies of antiquity in this case of alexander there is no exception according to history the persians were in occupation of egypt and alexander having mustered superior forces went there and drove them out and took possession himself may i ask this question was this a joke or was there a motive and if there was a motive what else could it have been but that alexander wanted the wealth in books gold silver ivory slaves and tribute which the persians were extorting for the unfortunate egyptians in ancient times the oracle of ammon at siwa was the most celebrated in heliopolis memphis and thebes were representatives of the best of egyptian culture end of chapter 4 stolen legacy greek philosophy is stolen egyptian philosophy by george g m james chapter five the pre-socratic philosophers and the teachings ascribed to them it is absolutely necessary here in chapters 5 and 6 to mention the doctrines of the so-called greek philosophers in order to convince my readers of their egyptian origin which is shown in the summaries of conclusions which follow these teachings it is also necessary to mention them so as to serve the purpose of reference and to meet the convenience of readers one the earlier ionian school this group consisted of dallas anaximander and anaximenes one delays supposed to have lived 620 to 546 bc and a native of miletus is credited by aristotle with teaching that a water is the source of all living things be all things are full of god both history and tradition are silent as to how there is arrived at its conclusions except that aristotle attempts to offer his opinion as a reason that is that dallas must have been influenced by the consideration of the moisture of nutriment and based his conclusion on a rationalistic interpretation of the myth of oceanus this however is regarded as mere conjecture on the part of aristotle two anaximander supposed to have been born 610 bc at militis it's credited with the teaching that the origin of all things is quote the infinite or the unlimited i.e appear on or the boundless the apperon is regarded as equivalent to the modern notion of space and the mythological notion of chaos both history and tradition are silent as to how anaximander arrived at his conclusion but here again we find aristotle offering his opinion as a reason i.e that anaximander must have supposed that change destroys matter and that unless the substratum of change is limitless change must at some time cease this opinion is of course mere conjecture on the part of aristotle three anaximines also a native of miletus and supposed to have died in 528 bc is credited with the teaching that all things originated from air both history and tradition are silent as to how anaximenes arrived at his conclusion and all attempts to furnish a reason are regarded as mere conjecture two pythagoras born in the asian island of samos supposedly in 530 bc the following doctrines have been attributed to pythagoras one transmigration the immortality of the soul and salvation this salvation is based upon certain beliefs covering covering the soul true life is not to be found here on earth and what men call life is really death and the body is the tomb of the soul owing to the contamination caused by the soul's imprisonment in the body it is forced to pass through an indefinite series of reincarnations from the body of one animal to that of another until it is purged from such contamination salvation in this sense consists of the freedom of the soul from the cycle of birth death and rebirth which is common to every soul and which condition must remain until purification or projection is completed being liberated from the ten chains of the flesh and also from successive reincarnations the soul now acquires her pristine perfection and the eligibility to join the company of the gods with whom she dwells forever this was the reward which the pythagorean system offered its initiates two the doctrines of a opposites be the summon or supreme good and c the process of purification a the union of opposites creates harmony in the universe this is true in the case of musical sounds such as we find in the liar where the harmony produced is the result of the mean proportional relation between the length of the two middle strings to that of the two extremes this is also true in natural phenomena which are identified with number whose elements consist of the odd and the even the even is unlimited because of its quality of unlimited divisibility and the odd indicates limitation while the product of both is the unit or harmony similarly do we obtain harmony in the union of positive and negative male and female material and immaterial body and soul b the sum bonum or supreme good and man is to become godlike this is entertainment or transformation which is the harmony resulting from a life of virtue it consists in a harmonious relationship between the faculties of man by means of which his lower nature becomes subordinated to his higher nature see the process of purification the harmony and purification of the soul is attained not only by virtue but also by other means the most important among them being the cultivation of the intellect through the pursuit of scientific knowledge and strict bodily discipline in this process music also held an important place the pythagoreans believed and taught that just as medicine is used to cure the body so music must be used to cure the soul here it might be appropriate to insert the doctrine of the quote three lives since it is also a method and means of purification quote mankind is divided into three layers lovers of wealth lovers of honor and lovers of wisdom i.e philosophers this last being highest end quote according to pythagoras philosophy determined the purification which led to the final salvation of the soul the cosmological doctrine all things are numbers that is to say not only every object but the entire universe is an arrangement of numbers this means that the characteristic of any object is the number by which it is represented a since the universe consists of ten bodies namely the five stars the earth and the counter earth then the universe must be represented by the perfect number ten be applied to the space around us but called by pythagoreans the boundless or unlimited it must be taken to mean the measuring out of this boundless into a balanced and harmonious universe so that everything might receive its proper proportion of it no more no less see this arrangement seems to suggest the notion of forms capable of receiving a mathematical expression i.e a doctrine which later appeared in plato as the theory of ideas d in the center of the universe there is a central fire around which the heavenly bodies fixed in their spheres evolved from west to east while around all there is the peripheral fire this motion of the heavenly bodies is regulated in the velocity and produces the harmony of the spheres three the atletic philosophers the elethic philosophers include zinophonies parmenides xeno and malicious they deal with the problem of change and are credited with introducing the notions of being and becoming the term elitic is derived from elia a city in southern italy where these men are said only to have visited a xenophonies born at colophon in asia minor about 370 bc xenophonies is credited with the following doctrines 1 the unity of god men err when they ascribe their own characteristics to the gods for god is all i all here in all intellect again since there is no becoming and since plurality depends upon becoming therefore there is no plurality consequently all is one and one is all two temperance against the artificial culture of greece its luxuries excess and fops zenophonies is credited with advocating temperance i.e plain living simplicity moderation and pure thinking b parmenides is said to have been born at elia 540 bc and to have composed a poem concerning nature perry physios which contains his doctrines a the poem consists of three parts one in part one the goddess of truth points out that there are two paths of knowledge one leading to a knowledge of truth and the other to a knowledge of the opinions of men two in part two the journey to truth is described and contains a metaphysical doctrine and in part three a cosmology of the apparent b the doctrines are as follows one the physical doctrine the right reason logos holds that being is one and immutable the senses and common opinion doxa are convinced that plurality and change exist around us 2 the doctrine of truth truth consists of the knowledge that being is and that not being is not and since not being is not then being is one and alone consequently being is unproduced and unchangeable it is impossible for being to produce being for under such circumstances being must exist before it begins to exist three the doctrine of the cosmology of the apparent here parmenides simply repeats the pythagorean doctrine of opposites all things are composed of light or warmth and of darkness or cold and according to aristotle the former of these opposites corresponds to being while the latter to not being these opposites are equivalent to the male and female principles in the cosmos 4 the doctrine of the anthropology of the apparent the life of the soul i.e perception and reflection depends upon the blending of opposites i.e of the light warm and the dark hold principles each of which stands in a physical relation to a corresponding principle in the cosmos see zeno supposed to be born 490 bc at aaliyah was a pupil of parmenides according to plato his doctrines were intended to be a contradiction of one motion and two plurality and space one arguments against motion a a body in order to move from one point to another must move through an infinite number of spaces since magnitude is divisible at infinitum b a body which is in one place is at rest an arrow in its flight is at each successive moment in one place therefore it is at rest see the race between achilles and the tortoise is intended to contradict the concept of motion in such a race achilles can never take overtake the tortoise because he must first reach the point at which the tortoise started but in the meantime the tortoise will have gained more ground since achilles must always reach first the position previously occupied by the tortoise the tortoise must always keep ahead at every point two arguments against plurality and space a if a measure of corn produces a sound then each grain ought to produce a sound this argument is taken from simplicus but described to xeno b if being exists in space then space itself must exist in space and the process will have to go on add infinitum this argument is also taken from simplicas see if magnitude exists it must be infinitely great and infinitely small at one and the same time since it has an infinite number of parts which are indivisible therefore the idea of the manifold is contradictory for the later ionian school a heracletus b enax agoras c democritus a heracletus believed to have been born bc 530 and to have died in 470 bc heracletus a native of ephesus in asia minor has been credited with the following doctrines one the doctrine of universal flux there is no static being and no unchanging element change is lord of the universe the underlying element of the universe is fire and all things are changed for fire and fire for all things a the change is not at random but uniform orderly and cyclic thus the heavenly fires are transmuted successfully into vapor water and earth only to go through a similar process as they ascend again into fire b it contains the elements both of the old and new at any given moment in the process consequently when night ends their day begins where summer begins their spring ends and where more to life ends their spiritual life begins see it also consists in the generation which results from the union of opposites a doctrine later to be found in plato and socrates hence we observe that the union of male and female produces organic life and that sharp and flat notes produce harmony two the theory of knowledge since since knowledge or knowledge derived from the senses is illusion it must be avoided and true knowledge sought for in the perception of the underlying unity of the various opposites this is possible for man who is part of the all-comprehending fire which underlies the universe but in the doctrine of the upward and downward paths true knowledge comes from the upward path which leads to the eternal fire whereas folly and death are the result of following the downward path three the doctrine of the locals that the hidden harmony of nature ever produces conquered from oppositions that the divine law or universal reason rules all things and that the primitive essence recomposes itself anew in all things according to fixed laws and is again restored by them be the life and teachings of annex agorus anaxigorus a native of clavo monet in ionia is supposed to have been born in 500 bc like all the other philosophers nothing is known about his early life and education he comes into history to a visit to athens where he met and made the friendship of pericles and where he was charged with impiety he however escaped from prison and fled black to his home in ionia where he died in 530 bc his doctrines included the following one noose i.e mind alone is self-moved and is the cause of motion in everything in the universe and has supreme power over all things two sensation is produced by the stimulation of opposites we experience the sensation of cold because of the heat in us and we experience a sweet taste because of the sour in us these doctrines will be treated elsewhere as regards their source and authorship see the life and teachings of democritus one his life democritus 420 to 316 bc is said to have been the son of hedger stratus and also a native of abdera a city at militis and ireland in the aegean both aristotle and theophrastus have regarded lucipus as the founder of atomism in spite of the fact that his existence is doubted like all the other greek philosophers nothing seems to be known about his early life in training however he enters history as a magician and sorcerer to his doctrines the name of democritus has been associated with the following doctrines summarized as atomism in his explanation of one the nature of the atoms and their behavior in relation to the phenomena of two creation three life and death and four sensations and knowledge one the description of the atom a the world stuff the atom is explained as a colorless transparent and homogeneous powder consisting of an infinite number of particles b their qualities the atom is described as full or solid invisible indestructible uncreated and capable self-motion the atoms differ in shape order position quantity and weight see the identity of the atom with reality every atom is equivalent to quote that which is and the void is equivalent to quote that which is not reality is the movement of that which is within that which is not two the atom in creation owing to the difference in size weight and mobility and in particular to the necessity there is a resultant motion by means of which the atoms combine themselves for the formation of the organic and inorganic worlds three the atoms in the phenomena of life and death what we commonly call life and death are due to a change in the arrangement of the atoms when they are arranged in a certain way life emerges but when that arrangement is changed to another way then death is the result in death the personality disappears the senses also disappear but the atoms live on forever the heavier atoms descend to the earth but the soul atoms which are composed of fire ascend to the celestial regions once they came four the atom in sensation and knowledge a the mind or soul is composed of fire atoms which are the finest the smoothest and the most mobile these fire atoms are distributed throughout the whole universe and in all animated things and especially in the human body where they are found in the largest numbers b external objects constantly give off emanations or minute images of themselves these in turn impress themselves upon our senses which set in motion our soul atoms and thereby create sensation and knowledge five summary of conclusions concerning the pre-socratic philosophers and the history of the four qualities and four elements one the early ionic philosophers have been given the credit of teaching the following doctrines a dollars that all things originated from water b anaximander that all things originated from primitive matter i.e the boundless and c anaximinis that all things get their life from air but these ideas were not new at the time when these men are supposed to have lived i.e between the 6th and 5th centuries bc the creation story found in the book of genesis speaks of the elements of water air and earth as the cosmic ingredients of the chaos out of which creation gradually developed the date of the pentateuch is placed at the 8th century bc but the view of the mosaic authorship of genesis takes us still further back into antiquity and many centuries before the time of the ionian philosophers we are told not only by the bible but also by the historian philo that moses was an initiate of the egyptian mysteries and became a hierogramist learned in all the wisdom of the egyptian people this was only possible by proper initiation and gradual advancement when evidence of fitness was demonstrated by the neophyte the egyptian name of moses was given to all candidates at their baptism and meant quote saved by water the exodus of the israelites appears to have occurred in the 21st egyptian dynasty i.e 1100 bc in the reign of bocorus under the leadership of moses whose creation story of genesis is clearly of egyptian origin it is clear that the early ionic philosophers drew their teachings from egyptian sources two in the case of the elitistic philosophers history regards zenophonies as a satirist not a philosopher and xeno as a paradoxical concerning his treatment of the problems of plurality space and motion which ultimately leads to a reductio ad absurdum parmenides introduced no new teaching when he spoke of being as that which exists and non-being as that which does not exist he only re-emphasized the doctrine of opposites as a principle of nature a doctrine taught not only by the pythagoreans but also the athenian philosophers chiefly socrates but the doctrine of opposites holds its origin to the egyptian mysteries which take us back to 4000 bc when it was demonstrated not only by double pillars in front of temples but also by the pairs of gods in the mystery system representing male and female positive and negative principles of nature it is also clear that the elite philosophers drew their teachings from egyptian sources three the latter ionic philosophers have been given credit for the following doctrines one heraclitus a that the world was produced by fire through a process of transmutation and b since all things originate from fire then fire is the logos the creator two anax agoras a the noose or mind is the source of motion or life in the universe and that sensation is produced by the stimulation of opposites three democritus a that atoms underlie all material things and b that the phenomena of life and death are merely changes in the mixture of the atoms so that the atoms never die because they are immortal these doctrines were by no means produced by the late ionic philosophers but could be shown to have originated from the egyptian mystery system the egyptians were fire worshipers because they believed that fire was the creator of the universe and built their great pyramids here equals fire in order to worship the god of fire and the pyramid age goes back to something like 3300 bc several thousands of years before the greeks were said to have come into the mediterranean area according to jan blitches the egyptian god was the god of order and form and creation an intellectual principle this god was also recognized as the divine artificer who fashioned the universe out of fire furthermore swinburne climber in his philosophy of fire page 18 has made the following statement quote the study of the mysteries of isis and osiris egyptian goddess and god quickly proves to the student that it was a pure fire philosophy zoroaster carried those mysteries into greece while orpheus carried them into thrace in each of these places these egyptian mysteries assumed the names of different gods in order to be adapted to local conditions hence in asia they took the form of mithra and samuthrace the form of the mother of the gods and boisha the form of batches and crete the form of jupiter in athens the forms of ceres and persepone the most noted of these egyptian imitations were the orphic bacchic ellucian samothracian and mithraic all of these fire worshipers believed that the universe originated from fire and they lived at a time which antedated the time of the late ionic philosophers by thousands of years the other doctrines of the later ionic philosophers together with those of socrates plato and aristotle will be treated under summaries of socrates plato and aristotle in chapter eight and will include one opposite to the news or mind three the logos for the atom five the theory of ideas six the unmoved mover 7 immortality 4 the greek philosophers practiced plagiarism the teachings of pythagoras seemed to have been so comprehensive that nearly all his successors embraced and taught a portion of his doctrine which we are told he obtained by frequent visits which he made to egypt for the purpose of his education two things are at once obvious one that the greek philosophers practiced plagiarism and did not teach anything new and two the source of their teachings was the egyptian mystery system either directly to contact with egypt or indirectly to pythagoras or tradition these facts can now be further demonstrated by an outline of the doctrines of pythagoras with the names of philosophers who repeated his doctrines one the doctrine of opposites the unit of number is composed both of odd and even elements of the finite and infinite and of the positive and negative in this connection we find a heracletus suggesting fire to be the source of creation by means of the principle of strife which separates phenomena and harmony which restores them to the original source b parmenides suggesting being as existent and non-being as non-existent see socrates attempting to prove the immortality of the soul by the doctrine of opposites d plato attempting to explain nature used the theory of ideas which he based upon the principle of opposites consequently the idea is true reality i.e being hence the concept is real but the thing which is known by the concept is unreal the new men is real and perfect but the phenomenon is unreal and imperfect e aristotle in attempting to establish the existence of god describes the divine attributes in terms of opposite god is the first mover that is unmoved hence we have a combination of motion and rest as the attributes of deity and nature two the doctrine of harmony as a union of opposites after being expounded by pythagoras appears also in the systems of a heracletus who explains the phenomena of nature as passing successfully through their opposites b socrates who also defines harmony as the union of opposites see plato who defines the harmony of the soul as the proper subordination of its parts i.e the higher and lower natures three the central and peripheral fires here pythagoras attempts to show that fire underlies creation and this same notion is expressed by a heracletus who speaks of the origin of the universe through the transformation of fire then we have b and x agorus c democritus d socrates and e plato each using the term mind loose as responsible for creation anaxogorus and socrates who speak directly of mind knows as an intelligence and purpose beyond nature while democritus and plato speak of mind indirectly as the world soul but further describe it as being composed of fire atoms floating throughout space clearly then mind no matter what other name or function we give it it's fire since it is composed of fire atoms and fire according to pythagoras underlies creation four immortality of the soul according to pythagoras the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is implied in the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul a socrates the purpose of philosophy is the salvation of the soul whereby it feeds upon the truth congenial to its divine nature and thus escapes from the wheel of rebirth and finally attains the consummation of unity with god b plato's doctrines one transmigration and two recollection one transmigration the souls of men go to the place of reward or punishment and after one thousand years they are permitted to choose a new lot of life he who has thrice chosen the higher life gains after three thousand years the home of the gods in the kingdom of thought others wander about for thousands of years in various bodies and many are destined to pursue their earthly life in lower animal forms it is necessary to point out that in this doctrine of transmigration plato describes the judgment scene in the egyptian book of the dead two recollection although the sense perceived world cannot lead us to a knowledge of ideas yet it reminds us of the ideas which we saw in a previous existence five summon bonum according to pythagoras the supreme good in man is to become godlike this transformation is to be accomplished by virtue which is a union of opposite in men's faculties i.e the subordination of man's lower nature to his higher nature but the precise purpose of the egyptian mysteries was to make a man god-like by the education by the agencies of education and virtue consequently it is clear that pythagoras obtained this doctrine directly from the egyptian mysteries hence it also follows that philosophers who have taught this doctrine must have obtained it either directly from the egyptian mysteries or indirectly through the teachings of pythagoras according to salas deification or becoming godlike was the purpose of the egyptian mysteries and according to c h veil in his ancient mysteries the egyptian son of bonum consisted of five stages during which the neophyte developed from a good man into a triumphant master attaining the highest spiritual consciousness by means of casting off the ten bodily fetters and becoming an adept like horus or buddha or christ the philosophers besides pythagoras who are given credit with having taught the doctrine of the supreme good or a socrates who defined it as an attainment in which man becomes god-like through self-denial and the cultivation of the mind b plato who defined it as happiness which is the attainment of the idea of the good which is god see aristotle who defined it as happiness which is based upon reason and which includes all the gifts of fortune it should be noted however that aristotle's definition of the supreme good marks the first departure from the concept of the summon bonum of the egyptian mysteries and the same thing is true of the hedonists who defined it as pleasure the conception of a supreme good is egyptian from which source pythagoras and other philosophers obtain the doctrine five summary of conclusions concerning democritus because of the importance of the doctrine of the adam and the great suspicion of his great number of books like that of aristotle democritus is treated separately like each of the athenian philosophers one his life the same thing might be said of democritus as might be said of any of the men who were called greek philosophers nothing appears to be known about his early life and training however he comes into history attracting public attention as a sorcerer and magician two his doctrines and authorship one authorship the authorship of the doctrine of the atom is doubtful from the standpoint of view of certain modern writers the names of the ionians lucifers and democritus have been associated with this doctrine which according to the opinion of aristotle and theophrastus originated through lucifus but was developed by democritus as a matter of fact the ionians doubted the existence of lucipus because he was unknown to them and it seems proper that the opinion of the ionians should receive credence rather than that of aristotle and theophrastus who were athenians and who were compiling philosophy in the interest of their movement two the doctrine concerning the atom is eclectic the doctrine of the atom as explained by democritus is eclectic and represents one of the many forms in which the ancient doctrine of opposites has been expressed the pythagoreans expressed it by the elements of number odd and even by manatees being unfamiliar with the law of generation denied the existence of one opposite not being in order to affirm the existence of the other being socrates being more acquainted with the law of generation than parmenides expressed it in several pairs of opposites in an effort to prove the immortality of the soul hence he spoke of unity and duality of division and composition of life and death in like manner democritus expressed the doctrine of opposites when he described reality by the life of the atom i.e a movement of that which is within that which is not the original source of this doctrine however is the philosophy of the mystery system of egypt where we find the male and female principles of nature symbolized by a osiris and isis the egyptian god and goddess and be the gods horus and seth symbolizing a world in static equilibrium of conflicting forces as they contend for dominion over egypt the doctrine and philosophy of opposites is further demonstrated by the egyptian creation story in which order came out of chaos and which was represented by four pairs of opposites male and female gods a nun and no net i.e primeval matter in space be huck and hawkett i.e illimitable and the boundless c her and her het i.e darkness and obscurity d ammon and omenet i.e the hidden and concealed ones the air wind clearly the doctrine of opposites was a basic philosophy of the egyptians being connected with not only the gods of their mystery dramas but with their cosmology and since this connection makes the doctrine one of the earliest in the development of egyptian thought it interdates the reign of manis it means that the egyptians were familiar with it before 3000 bc under these circumstances and in consequence of these facts the egyptian mystery system was the source of the doctrines a of the atom and b of opposites lucifus and democritus taught nothing new and must have obtained their knowledge of the doctrines from the egyptians directly or indirectly three the doctrines of the universal distribution of fire atoms and their emanation from external objects and derived from magic these doctrines are magical and express the magical principle quote that the qualities of animals or things are distributed throughout all their parts end quote consequently within the universe contact is established between objects through emanations and in the case of human beings the result might be sensation or cognition healing or contagion this principle is demonstrated not only by the cures such as were affected by the garment of christ in the handkerchiefs of saint paul but also by the modern scientific and medical practice of the preventive measure of quarantine it must be remembered that magic was part of the education of the egyptian priest for the religious rites and ceremonies of the egyptians were magical and the priests were the custodians of the knowledge four a fourth point is the fact that in the history and compilation of greek philosophy by aristotle and his followers there are only two men whose names are associated with the authorship of an extraordinary number of scientific books and the names of these men are democritus himself and aristotle five a fifth point which deserves important mention is the fact that in the history and compilation of greek philosophy by aristotle and his followers it has been discovered that wherever there has been the possession of a large collection of scientific books there has also been direct or indirect association with alexander the great six the association between democritus and alexander the great is seen through the democracy in circle a succession of teachers and students from the from a common original teacher democritus 420 to 316 bc is said to have taught me metro doris of childs who in turn is said to have taught a next arches who is said to have flourished at the time of the 110th olympiad to 337 bc and to have accompanied alexander the great on his campaign against egypt 333 bc here it is easy to see the tie between democritus and an ex-artist for these men were all ionians and members of the same school and were alive at the time of alexander's conquest of egypt on the other hand aristotle's contact with alexander the great is well known since he was a tutor of the young prince at the macedonian palace seven circumstantial evidence points to the fact that the books of democritus were not written by him nor did they contain his teachings this is so for the following reasons a lucifus whom the ionians did not know and whose existence has been questioned have been given credit by aristotle for the origin of the doctrine of the atom b apart from what was written on the atom the name of democritus is associated with a large list of books dealing with over 60 different subjects and covering all the branches of science known to the ancient world in addition to this vast field of knowledge the list also contains books on military science law and magic clearly the accumulation of such a vast range of knowledge by a single individual written in a single lifetime is impossible both physically and mentally the method among the ancients of imparting knowledge was by gradual stages followed by evidence of proficiency which in turn was also followed by initiations which marked every step in the progress of the neophyte the progress of training was slow and no neophyte could accomplish such knowledge in his lifetime as took the egyptians over five thousand years to accumulate these human limitations are as true today as they were among the ancients four our great scientists of the modern world are specialists only in single subjects see the question now remains how did democritus accumulate those books if he did not write them we believe we have the answer because it has been noticed in the history of greek philosophy that a wherever a greek philosopher has had association direct or indirect with alexander the great there was also the possession of a large collection of scientific books and b this is true in the cases of democritus and aristotle see an ex-artist and democritus were ionians who belonged to the same school and d x archus accompanied alexander the great on his campaign against egypt the indirect association between democritus and alexander the great now becomes obvious e it follows that since alexander's conquest of egypt had brought the greeks their long hopes for opportunity i.e access to the egyptian library and museum we would naturally expect alexander and his friends and the invading armies to have helped themselves with the egyptian books we would also expect an exorcist upon his return to ionia to have sold at least a portion of his loot to democritus nor do we expect aristotle and theophrastus to relate these facts to us since under the rules of the mysteries knowledge spoken or written could be diffused only by brethren among brethren this we believe is the way democritus came to possess such a large number of scientific books again it must be stated that democritus taught nothing new but simply what he had learned from the egyptians directly or indirectly his doctrine on the universal distribution of fire atoms is based upon a magical principle if the atom is an ingredient of the world then it will be universally distributed furthermore democritus enters history as a magician and since there is historical evidence that he visited the egyptian priest it is evident that magic was part of the training which he must have received from them three his books are doubtful in authorship several important facts must be noted in connection with the books which are said to have been written by democritus a a large number of books which appears in a list in the ninth book of diogenes lyortis does not appear elsewhere in the usual textbooks on the history of greek philosophy while zeller asserts that the genuineness of these books cannot be determined upon the evidence of the fragments it seems that his list of publications remains doubtful in authorship b more than 60 different subjects are treated and they include ethics physics astronomy botany zoology poetry medicine dialectics military science and law also books on magic including divination see we are informed by diogenes laertes that this large list of books was compiled by dracillus about 20 a.d who is a student of the school of plato and also a member of aristotle's movement which had for its purpose the compilation of greek philosophy the four qualities and four elements the history of the following ancient theory of quote the four qualities and four elements provides the world with the evidence of the egyptian origin of the doctrines of a opposites or contraries b change or transmutation and c the life and function of the universe is due to either of four elements fire or water or earth or air one this ancient theory was expressed by a diagram formed by outer and inner squares two the corners of the outer square carry the names of the elements fire water earth and air three the corners of the inner square being at the midpoints of the sides of the outer square carry the four fundamental qualities the hot the dry the cold and the wet four the diagram explains that fire is hot and dry earth is dry and cold water is cold and wet and air is wet and hot five accordingly water is an embodiment of cold and wet qualities and when the cold quality is replaced by the hot quality the element water is changed into the element air with the wet and hot qualities six consequently transmutation is definitely implied in the teaching of this symbol seven it is the oldest teaching of physical science and has been traced to the egyptians as far back as 5000 bc eight it shows that plato and aristotle who had been credited with the authorship of this teaching derive their doctrines or portions of them from the egyptians end of chapter 5. stolen legacy by george g m james greek philosophy is stolen egyptian philosophy chapter 6 the athenian philosophers one socrates is life doctrines summary of conclusions one life of socrates a date and place of birth socrates was born in athens in the year 1469 bc he was the son of sapphaniscus a sculptor and fenerete a midwife very little is known about his early years but we are told that he was brought up in the profession of his father that he called himself not only a pupil of prodigals and espaja which statements suggest that he might have learned from them music geometry and gymnastics but also a self-taught philosopher according to xenophon in the symposium up to the age of 40 his life appears to be a complete blank the first mention being made of him when he served as an ordinary soldier in the sieges of potadea and dellium between 432 and 429 bc b his economic status and personality socrates did not accept fees for what he taught and he became so poor that his wife zanthippi became very dissatisfied with domestic conditions he believed that he possessed a divine something i.e a divine voice which advised and guided him in the great crisis of his life see his condemnation and death in 399 bc after the custom speeches of the accusers miletus anitus and lycon socrates followed with his defense at the conclusion of which the judges voted 281 to 220 and socrates was condemned to death as a parting word he addressed himself both to those who voted against him and those who voted in his favor in the case of the former he rebuked them by predicting that evil would befall them in consequence of their crime in condemning him in the case of the latter he not only consoled them with the assurance that no evil could come to a good man either in life or in death but also expressed to them his idea about immortality quote death is either an eternal and dreamless sleep wherein there is no sensation at all or it is a journey to another and a better world where are the famous men of old whichever alternative be true death is not an evil but a good his death is willed by the gods and he is content plato's apology chapters 25 to 28. his death was delayed through a state religious ceremonial and he remained in prison for 30 days we are told that during this time he was visited by his friends who consisted of the inner circle and also his wife zanthippi that this was the occasion of his discourse concerning the immortality of the soul that he could have escaped from death if he wished because his friends visited him before daybreak and offered to set him free but then he refused the offer accordingly socrates drank the hemlock and died d krito's account credo on the night before the death of socrates while he was in prison on behalf of the company of visitors made a final appeal to him to permit them to secure his escape and spoke as follows oh my socrates i beseech you for the last time to listen to me and save yourself for to me your death will be more than a single disaster not only shall i lose a friend the like of whom i shall never find again but many persons who do not know you and me well will think that i might have saved you if i had been willing to spend money but that i neglected to do so and what character could be more disgraceful than the character of caring more for money than for one's friends the world would never believe that we were anxious to save you but that you yourself refuse to escape tell me this socrates surely you are not anxious about me and your other friends and afraid lest if you escape the informers should say that we stole you away and get us into trouble and involve us in a great deal of expense or perhaps in the loss of all our property and it may be bring some other punishment upon us besides if you have any fear of that kind dismiss it four of course we are bound to run those risks and still greater risk than those if necessary in saving you so do not i beseech you refused to listen to me then socrates replied i am anxious about that credo and about much besides and krito continued the appeal then have no fear on that score there are men who for no very large some are ready to bring you out of prison into safety and then you know these informers are cheaply bought and there will be no need to spend much on them my fortune is at your disposal and i think that it's sufficient and if you have any feeling about making use of my money there are strangers in athens whom you know ready to use theirs and one of them simeons of thieves who actually brought enough for the purpose and seabees and many others are ready too and therefore i repeat do not shrink from saying yourself saving yourself on that ground and do not let what you said in court that if you went into exile and you would not know what to do with yourself stand in your way for there are many places for you to go where you will be welcomed if you choose to go to thessaly i have friends there who will make much of you and shelter you from any annoyance from the people of thessaly consider then socrates or rather the time for consideration is passed we must resolve and there is only one plan possible everything must be done tonight if we didn't lay any longer we are lost old socrates i implore you not to refuse to listen to me plato's krito chapters three to five e fatal's account of the final scene just before the death of socrates in answer to another question from echocrates fatal replied i will try to tell you the whole story on the previous days i and the others had always met in the morning at the court where the trial was held which was close to the prison and then we would go into socrates we used to wait each morning until the prison was opened conversing for it was not opened early when it was opened we used to go into socrates and we generally spent the whole day with them but on that morning we met earlier than usual for the evening before we had learnt on leaving the prison that the ship had arrived from delos so we arranged to be at the usual place as early as possible when we reached the prison the porter who generally led us in came out to us and made us wait a little and not to go in until he himself summoned us for the eleven were releasing socrates from his fetters and giving him directions for his death in no great while he returned and made us enter so we went in and found socrates just released when zantippi saw us she willed aloud and cried in her woman's way this is the last time socrates that you will talk with your friends or they with you and socrates glanced at credo and said krito let her be taken home so some of creto's servants led her away weeping bitterly and beating her breast and it was about sunset and the servant of the eleven after bidding socrates farewell gave him the instructions as to how to take the poison and then handed it to him socrates took the cup and drank the poison cheerfully and then walked about until his legs felt heavy and when he had laying down he made his last request to krito in the following words i owe a to asclepius do not forget to pay it by this time the poison took effect and he passed away plato fatal chapter 3 65 2 the doctrines of socrates the doctrine of noose i.e mind or intelligent cause in order to account for god and creation he is credited with the theological premise whatever exists for a useful purpose is the work of an intelligence two the doctrine of the supreme good the supreme good i.e the sum bonum is equated both with happiness and with knowledge this however is not merely eutectia which depends upon external conditions and accidents of fortune but is upraxia a well-being which is conditioned by good action this is an attainment in which man becomes god-like through self-denial of external needs and the cultivation of the mind for happiness comes not through the perishable things of the external world but through the things that endure which are within us three the doctrines of opposites and harmony a odd and even are the elements of numbers one is definite but the other is unlimited the unit is the product both of odd and even hence the universe consists of opposites the finite and the infinite the male and the female the odd and the even the left and right be harmony is the union of opposites 4 the doctrines concerning the soul a the immortality of the soul b the transmigration of the soul c the salvation of the soul the purpose of philosophy is the salvation of the soul whereby it feeds upon the truth congenial to its divine nature and thus escapes from the wheel of rebirth and finally attains the consummation of unity with god d the body is the tomb of the soul e the aspirations of the soul there is a realm of true reality which is above the world of sense to this the soul aspires five the doctrine of self-knowledge know thyself self-knowledge is the basis of true knowledge the mysteries required as a first step the mastery of the passions which made room for the occupation of unlimited powers hence as the second step the neophyte was required to search within himself for the new powers which had taken possession of him the egyptians cons consequently wrote on their temples men know thyself six astrology and geology there was a suspicion that socrates was also engaged in the study of astrology and geology and that he taught these subjects for in his defense before the athenian judges he stated that the more formidable of his accusers tried to persuade them with lies that one socrates a wise man was speculating about the heavens and about things beneath the earth and that he was capable of making the worst appear the better reason this suspicion is further supported by the indictment brought against socrates and which reads as follows miletus the son of miletus of the deemed pithus on his oath brings the following accusation against socrates the son of safraniskus of the dem aloe peace socrates commits a crime by not believing in the gods of the city and by introducing new divinities he also commits a crime by corrupting the youth penalty death there is still a third source from which the suspicion arose that socrates was engaged also in astrology and geology this was the caricature of socrates published by aristophanes in his comedy the clouds as follows socrates is a miserable recluse who speaks a great deal of absurd and amusing nonsense about physics and declares that zeus is dethroned that rotation reigns in its deed and that the new defendancies are air which holds the earth suspended ether the clouds and tongue he professes to possess the power of belial which enables him to make the worst appear the better reason and his teachings cause children to beat their parents aristophanes clouds 8 28 and 380 life and trial of socrates after the church introduction page 18. three summary of conclusions one life and personality of socrates there are two circumstances in the life of socrates which demand our attention a he is said to have been completely unknown up to the age of 40 and be to have lived a life of poverty these circumstances point to secrecy and training and poverty as conditions of his life and as such they coincide with the requirements of the mystery system of egypt and her secret schools whether in the land of egypt or abroad which exacted the vows of secrecy and poverty from all neophytes and initiates all aspirants of the mysteries had to receive secret training and preparation and socrates was no exception he alone of the three athenian philosophers deserves the appellation of a true master mason plato was a great coward and aristotle was greater still at the execution of socrates plato fled to megara to the lodge of euclid and aristotle when indicted fled in exile to couches two the doctrines the doctrine of the noose or an intelligent cause which with reference to this doctrine we find that it is also credited to annex agoras who was said to have lived between 500 and 430 bc and who therefore anti-dated socrates 469 to 399 bc and expounding it secondly further examination shows that the doctrine of the noose is also a direct inference from the doctrine of cognition as credited to democritus for 60 bc to 360 bc who is credited with stating that fire atoms are distributed through the universe and that mind is composed of fire atoms therefore it can be inferred a that mind fills or is distributed through the universe and b since only light can produce like then the mind of the universe must have been produced by a mind which is its source thirdly this doctrine of the noose is a doctrine that originated from the ancient mysteries of egypt where the god osiris was represented in all egyptian temples by the symbol of an open eye this symbol indicated not only sight that transcends time and space but also the omniscience of god as the great mind which created and which directs the universe this symbol is carried as a declaration in all modern masonic lodges and has the same meaning two the doctrine of the supreme good this doctrine of the supreme good or someone bonum is likewise a very ancient doctrine which takes us back to the egyptian mysteries as stated in the books on greek philosophy and by socrates it is only in part and consequently a mistaken notion of the original doctrine has resulted to say that the supreme good is happiness that happiness is well-being that well-being is knowledge and that knowledge is virtual is the same thing as saying that the supreme god is virtual supreme good is virtual in the egyptian mysteries however the concept of the supreme good is expressed as the purpose of virtue and that is the salvation of the soul by liberating it from the ten bodily feathers this process of liberation is a process of purification both of mind and of body the former by the study of philosophy and science and the latter my bodily ascetic disciplines this training was continued from the baptism of water and was subsequently followed by the baptism of fire when the candidate had made the necessary progress this process transformed man and made him godlike and fitted him for union with god the concept of the supreme good which originally came from the egyptian mysteries is the earliest theory of salvation and socrates must have derived this doctrine from that source or indirectly from the pythagoreans the following doctrines are generally emitted as having been derived from the pythagoreans a transmigration of the soul be the immortality of the soul c the tomb of the soul is the body d the doctrines of opposites and harmony since doctrines a b c and d originated from the pythagoreans and since the pythagoreans derived them from the egyptians then their egyptian origin directly or indirectly becomes evident four astrology and geology from a the indictment b his defense before the athenian judges and see the caricature by aristophanes in the clouds we discover that socrates was suspected of being a student of nature and of introducing new divinities into athens again it must be stated that under the mystery system of egypt the study of nature was a requirement and since the athenians prosecuted and condemned socrates to death for engaging in this study and spreading the knowledge they must have regarded the new ideas as foreign or of egyptian origin 5 the doctrine of self-knowledge the doctrine of self-knowledge for centuries attributed to socrates is now definitely known to have originated from the egyptian temples on the outside of which the words men know thyself were written it is evident that socrates taught nothing new because his doctrines are eclectic containing elements from enactagoris democritus heracletus parmenides and pythagoras and finally have been traced to the teachings of the egyptian mystery system six the importance of the farewell conversations of socrates with his pupils and friends at the prison in examining what took place during the farewell conversations of socrates with his pupils and friends at least five points should be noted a the subject of the conversations be the determination of his friends to smuggle him away c his refusal to accept liberation d his dying request which was addressed to cretel whom he asked to pay an important debt for him e the value of those conversations in their present form in literature now the question arises what is the meaning and significance of these five points the answers and conclusions are as follows a as the subject of the conversations dealt with the immortality and salvation of the soul we had once recognized the fact that this was the central theme of the ancient mysteries and consequently that socrates was acquainted with the doctrines moreover when we read the fatal and the doctrines both of opposites and recollection which he had advanced in proof of immortality we are convinced that he must have received his training from the mystery system of egypt a connection with which there are higher france and qualified teachers b secondly in dealing with the behavior of his friends and their determination to smuggle him away we are dealing with their attempts to render help to a brother in distress this was the life that initiates were expected to live for brotherhood was another great principle upon which the egyptian mysteries laid emphasis evidently socrates was a brother initiate of the egyptian mysteries since it comprised one universal brotherhood c thirdly in dealing with the refusal of socrates to accept liberation again we are dealing with a type of behavior which singles him out as an advanced initiate of the ancient mysteries of egypt in the paths to mastery and victory the mystery system regarded unselfishness or sacrifice as an advanced stage of attainment which must be accomplished before unlimited power could be bestowed upon the candidate it is true that annexagorus escaped for his life and in like manner plato and aristotle but this only serves to show that socrates had reached a higher degree in the mysteries than all of them this necessity necessitated training in the training center was egypt d fourthly with reference to the dying request of socrates addressed to cretel in which he asked him to pay a certain debt we again encounter another of the great ideals essential to the life of an initiate this in the teaching of the mysteries embraces the exercise of a cardinal virtue i.e justice a practice which the candidate must adopt in order that his sense of value might also develop here again the action of socrates reveals that he was a brother initiate with a high sense of justice and honesty since he did not wish to die without discharging all his obligations certainly the dying request of socrates reveals him as a loyal member of the mystery system of egypt e fifthly and finally what value may we attach to the literature which deals with the farewell conversations of socrates with his friends and pupils since this literature embraces a man whose beliefs and practices coincide with those of the initiates of the ancient mysteries of egypt then we may regard the study of xenophon's memorabilia plato's apology the fatal eurythro creto and timaeus as valuable specimens of literature of the mysteries of masonic world 2. plato early life travels disputed writings his doctrines summary of conclusions one his early life plato is said to have been born at athens in 427 bc and that his father's name was aristo and his mother's name was perektone who was also a relative of solon little information is known about his early life and training but there is a supposition that because his parents were wealthy he must have had such educational opportunities as were available to a wealthy youth he is said to have studied the doctrines of heracletus under cradles and to have been a pupil of socrates for eight years it has also said that he was a soldier two his travels he was 28 years old when socrates died i.e 399 bc and together with the other pupils of socrates he fled from athens to euclid at maguera for safety he kept away from athens for 12 years during which time it is also said that apart from visiting euclid he traveled a to southern italy where he met the remnant of pythagoreans b to syracuse and sicily where through dion he met dionysus to whom he became a tutor who subsequently caused him to be sold as a slave and see to egypt be his academy plato is said to have returned to athens in 387 bc when a middle-aged man of 40 years and to have opened an academy in a gymnasium on the western suburbs of athens over which he presided for 20 years he is said to have taught the following subjects a political science b statesmanship c mathematics d dialectics and it is said that the curriculum was based upon the educational principles advocated in the republic three his writings are disputed and doubted by modern scholarship there are 36 dialogues in a number of letters which plato is supposed to have written but which are disputed and doubted by modern scholarship a grote states that plato has written only those dialogues that bear his name b schar schmidt states that only nine of the 36 dialogues are genuine while see aristotle considered the platonic dialogues as nine in number namely the laws timaeus fedo symposium phaedras georgias the atus philebus and the republic which he thought are genuine d of the remaining 27 dialogues some scholars contend that the youthful dialogues should be included with the genuine ones and these are the apology creto and thydemus latchis lysis and protagoras and e of the remaining 21 dialogues scholars suggest that those which were not written by plato must have been written by his pupils 4 the doctrines of plato the doctrines attributed to plato are scattered over a wide area of literature being found in piecemeal throughout what are called dialogues but particularly in connection with one the theory of ideas and its application to natural phenomena which includes the doctrines of a the real and unreal b the noose mind and c creation two the ethical doctrines concerning a the highest good b definition of virtue and c the cardinal values three the doctrine of the ideal state whose attributes are compared with the attributes of the soul and justice following this order they are as follows one the theory of ideas a definition of ideas this may be expressed in the following syllogism the idea retaining its unity unchangeableness and perfection is the element of reality in a thing the idea is the concepts by which a thing is known therefore the concept by which a thing is known is the element of reality in a thing it follows also that since the concept or idea of a thing is real then the concrete thing itself is unreal b the application of the theory of ideas to natural phenomena in view of the definition of the idea three doctrines have resulted a the doctrine of the real and unreal the things which we see around us are the phenomena of nature they belong to the earthly realm they are only copies of their prototypes the ideas and pneumonia which dwell in the heavenly realm the ideas are real and perfect but the phenomena are unreal and imperfect and it is the function of philosophy to enable the mind to rise above the contemplation of the visible copies of ideas and advance to a knowledge of the ideas themselves there is however something common between them because the phenomena partake of the idea this participation is an imitation but it is so imperfect that the natural phenomena fall far short of ideas be the doctrine of the noose or world soul this teaches that the universe are living animals and that they are endowed with the most perfect and intelligent souls that if god had made the world as perfect as the nature of matter allowed that he must have endowed it with a perfect soul this soul acts as mediator between the ideas and natural phenomena and is the cause of life motion order and knowledge in the universe see the doctrine of a demi urges in creation cosmology in the myth of creation found in the timaeus we find the doctrine on creation as it is described to plato's authorship as follows out of chaos which was ruled by necessity god the demiurges or creator made order by fashioning the phenomena of matter according to the eternal prototypes i.e the ideas in as perfect a manner as the imperfection of matter would allow he next created the gods and ordered them to fashion the body of man while he himself made the soul of man from the same material as that of the world soul the soul of man is a self-moving principle and is responsible for life motion and consciousness in the body two the ethical doctrines the ethical doctrines that have been attributed to plato are a that of the highest good i.e the sum of bone b the connotation of virtue and c the reduction of the virtues to four and the place of wisdom among them a as something subjective and as an earthly experience the highest good is happiness but as an object of attainment it is the idea of good and consequently identified with god therefore the purpose of a man's life is freedom from the fetters of the body in which the soul is confined and the practice of virtue and wisdom makes him like a god even while on earth virtue is the order the health and the harmony of the soul there are many virtues but the greatest is wisdom all virtues may be reduced to the four cardinal virtues wisdom fortitude temperance and justice three the ideal state the republic the doctrine attributed to plato in the field of civics is the doctrine of the ideal state whose attributes are compared with the attributes of the soul and justice in a state virtue should be the chief aim and unless philosophers become rulers or rulers become through students of philosophy there will be unceasing troubles for states and humanity at large the ideal state is modeled upon the individual soul and just as the soul has three parts so also should the state have three parts the rulers the warriors and the workers similarly just as the harmony of the soul depends upon the proper subordination of its parts so also does the state depend upon the proper subordination of its parts in order to enjoy peace here plato introduces the allegory of the charioteer and the winged steeds in order to show that virtue is to the soul as justice is to the state one horse is of noble origin while the other is ignoble consequently they cannot agree as the noble horse strives to mount up to the heavenly regions which are suitable to its nature so the other tries to drag him down likewise in dealing with the soul it is the proper subordination of his parts that enable the noble and man to attain its excellence so also in dealing with the state it is justice or the proper subordination of the different classes that makes it an ideal state five summary of conclusions the doctrines of plato are eclectic and point to egyptian origin one the doctrine of the real and unreal to represent doctrine found in the comparison between natural phenomena and the ideas is only an instance of the application of the doctrine of opposites here the things of this world have their corresponding types in the heavenly realm here the ideas correspond to being while the natural phenomena correspond to night being but the doctrine of opposites may be traced back not only to socrates democritus parmenides and the pythagoreans but further back to its original source i.e the egyptian mystery system where the principle of opposites was represented not only by pairs of male and female gods such as osiris and isis but also by pairs of pillars in the front of all the egyptian temples 2 the doctrine of the noose or world soul is a principle of egyptian magic plato is credited with expressing this doctrine in the form of a simile in which he compares the world to a living animal which is composed of souls one being made perfect and responsible for the life motion and knowledge of the animal or universe this doctrine may be traced not only to a democritus who based his teaching about the fire atoms of the soul and cognition upon the magical principle of the egyptians that the qualities of an animal are distributed throughout its parts but also to be an axologist who is said to have advanced the noose mined as responsible for creating order out of chaos and which is omnipotent and omniscient the doctrine of the noose as a matter of fact originated from sea the mystery system of egypt in connection with which the god osiris was represented in all egyptian temples by the symbol of an open eye referred to elsewhere this symbol indicated not only sight that transcended space and time but also omniscience as the great mind which created and which still directs the universe this symbol also forms a part of the decoration of all masonic lodges of the modern world and dates back to the osirian or sun worship of the egyptians more than 5000 bc this same notion was also represented by the egyptians by a god with eyes all over him and was known as the all-seeing eye three the doctrine of the demiurge in creation this doctrine which ascribed to the authorship of plato did not by any means originate from plato it was not only a current doctrine at the time of plato but was well known among the eastern ancient nations and taught by them many centuries before his time 427 to 347 bc history tells us that the persians taught this doctrine more than six centuries bc through their leader zoroaster history also tells us that pythagoras 500 bc taught the same doctrine expressed in terms of monads the universe consisted of two unities a the unity from which the series of numbers or beings is derived being absolute unity which is the source of all i.e the monad of monads or the god of gods and be the one i.e the first in the series of derived numbers or beings it is opposed to and limited by plurality and therefore it is a relative unity i.e a created monad or god a demiurge consequently the opposition between the one and the many is the source of all the rest furthermore history likewise tells us that the original source of the doctrine of a demiurge in creation was egypt and it dates back to the creation story of egypt 4000 bc which is to be found in the account given by the memphis theology an inscription on stone now kept in the british museum it contains the theological and cosmological views of the egyptians which date back to the very beginning of egyptian history when the first diocese had made a new capital at memphis the city of the god i.e about 4000 bc or even earlier the egyptian cosmology must be presented in three parts each part being supplementary to the other and presenting a complete philosophy by their combination part 1 deals with the gods of chaos part 2 deals with the gods of order and arrangement in creation and part 3 deals with the primate of the gods through whose logos creation was accomplished in part 1 pre-creation or chaos is represented by the primate of the gods emerging from the primeval waters none in the form of a hill i.e the risen land to atum i.e atom the sun god immediately joining tah by emerging also from the chaotic waters none and sitting upon him the hill three a description of the other qualities within the chaos follows there are four pairs of male and female gods in the form of frogs and serpents their names are a nun and nanette the primeval ocean and primeval matter b and boundless see cook and cook it darkness and obscurity and d ammon and ammonette the hidden and concealed ones men fight theology in ancient egyptian religion by frankfurt frankfurt page 10 page 21. in part 2 the gods of order and arrangement are represented as follows the same first pair of pre-creation gods are together present the prime evil hill who is the thought and the word of all the gods together with atun who rest upon the bazaar atum i.e atom having absorbed the thought and creative power of pata then proceeds with the work of creation he names four pairs of parts of his own body which become gods and in this way eight gods are created who together with himself become nine gods in one family or god head called the ened magic is the key to the interpretation of ancient religions and philosophy part three tells us of the specific powers of pata which atom absorbs but does not tell us how he absorbs them part 1 tells us how for it describes the movement of atom as emerging from the prime evil waters and sitting upon tata the risen land or hill it however does not give us the reason for atoms movement a behavior which can be understood only when we apply to its interpretation the key of magical principles the magical principle now what is the magical principle involved in atom's behavior it is this the qualities or attributes of entities human or defined are distributed throughout their various parts and contact with such entities releases those qualities it is now clear that by making contact with the top atom immediately received the attributes of pata's created thought and speech and omnipotence and became the instrument and the logos and the demiurge through whom the task of creation was undertaken and completed it is also clear that according to the memphis theology the doctrines of the demiurge and created gods originated from the egyptian religion and mystery system and not from plato who lived from 427 to 347 bc the memphis theology will be dealt with in a separate chapter to show the origin of greek philosophy for the doctrines of a the highest good be virtue and see the cardinal virtuals this is really the earliest theory of salvation and it originated from the egyptian mysteries but not from plato the main purpose of the egyptian mysteries was the salvation of the human soul the egyptians believed the human body to be a prison house with the soul is chained by ten feathers this condition not only kept man separated from god but made him subject to the wheel of rebirth or reincarnation in order to escape from the effects of his condition two requirements had to be fulfilled by the neophyte he must keep the ten commandments taught by the mysteries for by such a discipline he would gain conquest over the fetters of the soul and liberate it so as to make his development possible and he now being well qualified and duly prepared must undergo a series of initiations in order to develop his soul from the human stage to that of a god such a transformation was known as salvation it placed the neophyte in harmony with nature man and god it deified him i.e made him become godlike and this attainment was known as the highest good according to this theory of salvation man is expected to work out his own salvation without a mediator between himself and his god plato defines virtue as the order or discipline of the soul this meaning we accept since it agrees with the purpose of the ten commandments of the mysteries the doctrines of the ten virtues and the ten fetters are as old as the egyptian history itself each commandment or discipline represented a principle of virtue and the function of each virtue was to remove a fetter hence a life of virtue was antecedent and preparatory to those further experiences i.e the initiations which led to gradual perfection and the dfinity of the neophyte plato is also credited with having reduced all virtues to four cardinal values and which assigning the highest place among them to wisdom as follows wisdom fortitude temperance and justice we are also informed through the history of philosophy that socrates the alleged teacher of plato taught that wisdom was the equivalent of all virtue this divergence of opinion between pupil and teacher is significant since it points to the fact that both of them simply speculated about a system of ethics which was current in the ancient world and which neither of them had produced this system of ethics has already been mentioned belonged to the mystery system of egypt which required neophytes in preparation for initiation to keep the following ten commandments underlying which were ten principles of virtue the neophyte must one control his thoughts two control his actions three have devotion of purpose four have faith in the ability of his master to teach him the truth five have faith in himself to assimilate the truth six have faith in himself to wield the truth seven be free from resentment under the experience of persecution eight be free from resentment under experience of wrong nine cultivate the ability to distinguish between right and wrong and ten cultivate the ability to distinguish between the real and the unreal he must have a sense of values if we now compare the order in the above outline with the order in which the cardinal values are set to be arranged we shall immediately see that the first place which wisdom occupies among the virtues was given to it by the egyptian mysteries and not by plato consequently in one and two from the control of thoughts and actions we derive the virtue of wisdom therefore from freedom of resentment under persecution we derive the virtue of fortitude and from an ability to distinguish between right and wrong and between the real and unreal we derive the virtues of justice and temperance the doctrine of the ideal states concerning the authorship and source of this doctrine there are two conclusions first plato was not the author of the republic and second the allegory of the charioteer and the winged steeds is not a product of plato but is derived from the egyptian book of the dead in the judgment drama concerning the first conclusion it is only necessary to reaffirm what has already been stated in connection with the writings of plato and this is that they are disputed not only by such modern scholars as grot and schar schmidt but also by ancient historians diogenes laertes aristocenis and feverinus 80 to 150 a.d who declared that the subject matter of the republic was found in the controversies written by protagoras 481 to 411 bc at the time of whose death plato was but a boy furthermore the authorship of plato rests only upon the opinions of aristotle and theophrastus both of whose aims were the compilation of a greek philosophy with egyptian material concerning the second conclusion it must be pointed out that the allegory of the charioteer and the winged deeds is a description of the quality and destiny of the soul as it appears at the bar of justice in the judgment drama of the egyptian book of the dead in this drama the great chief justice and president of the unseen world i.e osiris is seated on a throne and is attended by the goddesses icees and nephews while 42 assistant judges are seated around near osiris there are four genie of amenti the unseen world represented as short vases called kenobi in which the different viscera symbolizing the moral qualities of the individual are kept embalmed the intestines have a very important connection with the moral qualities of the individual since they are blamed for any sin which the individual commits at the opposite end the deceased is introduced by horus while in the center stands the scale of justice which has been erected by anubis on one side of it there appears a heart-shaped vase containing the moral qualities of the deceased while on the other side there is a figure of the goddess of truth the scribe holding a roll of papyrus stands by and makes a record of the wane after this is completed horus receives the record from toth and advances to osiris to make known the results osiris listens and at the end of the report pronounces sentence of reward or punishment in the meantime fearful monsters lurk around the scene to destroy the soul if the verdict is against it let us observe that one the motion of the scale and the judgment drama corresponds with the up and down motion of the wing's deeds of the allegory two the opposite qualities weighed on the scale correspond with the opposite qualities possessed by the noble and ignoble stage of the allegory three the idea of justice symbolized by the scale of judgment drama corresponds with the idea of justice expressed in the allegory the winged steeds corresponds with the monsters of the judgment drama b the authorship of the republic according to diogenes laertes book three and pages three eleven and three twenty seven it is stated both by eric stole zenus and favorinus that nearly the whole of the subject matter of plato's republic was found in the controversies written by protagoras furthermore according to rogers students history of philosophy page 78 it is stated that although plato might have drawn heavily upon the remnants reminisces of socrates whose lectures he attended yet the subject matter of the republic is a more carefully reasoned system of philosophy then can be easily attributed to socrates that the whole volume is a cumulative argument into which there are subtle subtly interwoven opinions on almost every subject of philosophical importance it is obvious that modern scholarship doubts that plato drew the subject matter of the republic from socrates and is inclined to attribute authorship to plato himself if however we take into consideration the fact that the subject matter of the republic was in circulation long before the time of plato for protagoras is supposed to have lived from 481 to 411 bc and plato from 427 to 347 bc reason for this the assignment of the authorship to plato but the important question remains from what source did protagonists draw the ideas of the republic which was circulated in the controversies textbooks on greek philosophy tell us that protagoras was a pupil of democritus but when we turn to the writings of democritus we are unable to discover any connection between them and their a educational system and the b paternal government which are advocated in the republic this fact forces us to the conclusion that the subject matter of plato's republic was neither produced by plato nor any greek philosopher see the authorship of timaeus according also to diogenes laertes book eight pages 399 to 401 when plato visited dionysus at sicily he paid philo philolis a pythagorean 40 alexandrian mene of silver for a book from which he copied the whole contents of the timaeus under these circumstances it is clear that plato wrote neither the republic nor the timaeus whose subject matter identifies them with the purpose of the mysteries of egypt six the chariot was not a cultural pattern of the greeks at the time of plato nor was it used by them in warfare greek culture and traditions did not furnish plato with the idea of the chariot and winged deeds for nowhere in their brief military history i.e up to the time of plato do we find the use of such a war machine by the greeks only nearby nation who specialized in the manufacture of chariots and the breeding of horses was the egyptians when joseph was governor in egypt the horse and war chariot were in use and when the israelites fled from the country pharaoh pursued them to the red sea and chariots even homer and diodorus who visited egypt testified that they saw a great multitude of war chariots and numerous stables along the banks of the nile from memphis to thebes and since the judgment drama in the egyptian book of the dead reveals the entire philosophy contained in the allegory plato cannot be credited as its author the following sketch of the military history of the greeks shows that the chariot was not used by them nor was it their culture pattern external wars or wars with the persians a the ionian revolt against persian rule 499 to 494 bc this climaxed and a naval engagement at laid where the ionian fleet was defeated b the battle of marathon 490 bc during the summer of 490 bc the greeks met the persians at the bay of marathon and after a brief fight with bulls and arrows both belligerents withdrew to prepare for more decisive engagements c the battle of thermopylae 480 bc 10 years after marathon the persians and greeks met again to settle their grievances the persians anchored in the gulf of pegasay while the greeks anchored off cape artemisium a battle followed and thermopylae was captured by the persians d the battle of salamis 479 bc both persians and greeks met again at salamis in 479 bc and a naval engagement followed with considerable loss of ships on both sides both belligerents withdrew without any decision e the confederacy of delos and their wars with the persians 478 to 448 bc the purpose of the confederacy was defense against persian aggression and two naval battles were fought one at the river euromaidan in 467 bc when the greeks gained a minor victory and the other at cyprus in 449 bc when the island was captured by the persians chariots were not used in any of these engagements b internal wars i.e the peloponnesian wars 460 445 bc and 431 to 421 bc respectively these wars were fought between the different greek states and their major engagements were maritime in 432 bc athens blocked puerto de and magara was excluded from greek markets in 431 bc thebes attacked plateau and while a peloponnesian army occupied attica and athenian fleet raided peloponnesis pericles conducted the evacuation of attica the oligarchs at corsaira were massacred and after the seizure of m amphipolis nyxias sued for peace 422 bc it is evident that greek culture and tradition did not furnish plato with the idea of the charioteer and wing steeds for nowhere in their brief military history i.e up to the time of plato do we find the use of such a war machine by the greeks as a chariot the only nearby nation who specialized in the manufacture of chariots and horse breeding was the egyptians as already mentioned and since the judgment drama in the egyptian book of the dead depicts the allegory of the charioteer and winged steeds credit for its authorship cannot be given to plato but to the egyptians three aristotle a early life in training and b his own list of books c of the list of books two doctrines three summary of conclusions his doctrines the library of alexandria true source of his unusual number of books the discrepancy and doubts in his life a birth and early life and training according to the textbooks on the history of greek philosophy aristotle was born in 384 bc at stagiera a town in thrace his father neomanchus is said to have been a physician to a mentus king of macedonia nothing is mentioned in books about his early education only that he became an orphan and at the age of 19 he went to athens where he spent 20 years as a pupil of plato we are also informed that after the death of plato his nephew became the master of his school and that aristotle left immediately for maisia where he met and married the niece of hermaeus likewise that after the death of amentus of macedon his son philip having become king appointed aristotle as tutor of his son alexander a boy of 13 years later to be called the great and consequence of his kinds quest of egypt after philip's assassination in 336 bc alexander became king and we are informed that he immediately planned an asiatic campaign and included egypt during which time aristotle is said to have returned to athens and founded a school in a gymnasium called the lyceum we are further informed that aristotle conducted this school for only 12 years that alexander the great advanced him the funds to purchase a large number of books that its pupils were called peripatetics and that owing to an incident for impiety brought against him by a priest named euromiton he fled from athens to chaucest and yuboya where he remained in exile until his death in 322 bc b his own list of books aristotle is credited with classifying his own writings as follows one the theoretic whose object is truth and which included a mathematics b physics and c theology two the practical whose object is the useful and which included a ethics be economics and see politics three the productive or poetic whose object is the beautiful and which included a poetry be art and see rhetoric neither logic nor metaphysics was in this list see other list of books there are two lists of books which have come down to modern times from alexandrian and arabian sources the older list derived from the alexandrine hermipus 200 bc who estimated the books of aristotle at 400 which according to zeller's suggestion must have been in the alexandrian library at the time of the compilation of the list since works which are now considered to be aristotle's are not found in the list the latter derived from arabian sources was compiled by ptolemis or the first of the first or second century a.d this list mentions most of the works in the modern collection and has a total of one thousand books doctrines of aristotle one metaphysics or the principles of being in the metaphysical realm one aristotle defines metaphysics as the science of being as being two he names the attributes of being as a actuality i.e perfection and b potentiality the capacity for perfection three he states that all created beings are composed of actuality and potentiality these two principles are present and are mixed in all created beings except one whose being is actuality and includes the composition of a matter and form b substance and accident c soul and its faculties d active and passive intellect two principles of being in the physical realm there are four principles of being in the physical realm which are called causes one matter the material cause is the potentiality or capacity of existence it is that out of which being is made to form or essence the formal cause is that which gives actuality to existence it is that into which a thing is made when matter is united with form the result is organized or realized being that has come to existence in the process of nature three final cause is that for which everything exists everything has a purpose and that purpose is the final cause a final cause always implies intelligence but this is not always true in the case of the efficient cause consequently in the realm of nature every being or living organism is the complex effect of four causes one the substance out of which it is made i.e material course two the type of idea according to which the embryo tends to develop i.e formal cause the act of creation or generation i.e the efficient cause for the purpose or end for which the organism is created i.e final cause in other words matter type creation and purpose are the four principles which underlie all existing things three doctrines concerning the existence of god one although motion is eternal they cannot be an indefinite series of movers in the moved therefore there must be one the first in the series which is unmoved i.e the unmoved mover two the actual is antecedent to the potential for although lasting appearance is really first in nature therefore before all matter and the composition of actual and potential pure actuality must have existed therefore actuality is the cause of all things that exist and since it is pure actuality its life is essentially free for more material conditions it is the thought of thought the absolute spirit who dwells in eternal peace and self-enjoyment who knows himself and the absolute truth and is in need of neither action nor virtue three god is one for matter is the principle of plurality and the first intelligence is free from material conditions his life is contemplative thought neither providence nor will is comparable with the eternal repose in which he dwells god is not connected with the world 4 the doctrine of the origin of the world the world is eternal because matter motion and time are eternal 5 the doctrine concerning nature nature is everything which has the principle of motion and rest it is spontaneous and self-determining from within nature does nothing in vain but according to definite law it is always striving for the best according to a plan of development which is abstracted only by matter the striving of nature is through the less perfect to the more perfect six the doctrine concerning the universe the world is globe-shaped circular and most perfect in form the heaven which is composed of ether stands in immediate contact with the first cause the stars which are eternal come next in order the earth ball is in the middle and is the first furthest from the prime mover at least participant of divinity 7 the doctrine of the soul the soul is not merely a harmony of the body or the blending of opposites it is neither the four elements nor their compound for it transcends all material considerations the soul and body are not two distinct things but one in two different aspects i.e just as form is related to matter the soul is the power which a living body possesses and it is the end for which the body exists i.e the final cause of his existence while the soul which is the radical principle of life is one yet it has several faculties those faculties are one sensitive two rational three nutritive four repetitive five locomotive of these the sensitive and the rational are the most important sensation being the faculty by means of which the forms of sensible things are received just as impression is made as by a seal and intelligent knowledge being the faculty by means of which intellectual knowledge is required it is the seed of ideas only it does not create them since knowledge comes through the senses summary of conclusions a his doctrines one the doctrine of being by declaring the attributes of being as a actuality or the determining principle and b potentiality or the indeterminate principle aristotle attempted to explain reality in terms of the principle of opposites but this principle was used not only by the pythagoreans permanentes and democritus in a similar manner but also by socrates in his attempt to prove the immortality of the soul and by plato who saw reality as the concept of things as distinguished from the things themselves as a new meaner as distinct from the phenomena and as the real distinct from the unreal but the principle of opposites originated from the egyptian mystery system whose gods were male and female and whose temples carried in front of them two pillars as symbols of the principle of opposites it is obvious that aristotle was not the author of this doctrine but the egyptians 2 the existence of god a the theological concept has not only been embraced by socrates plato and aristotle but also by the peoples of the remotest antiquity in the accounts found in the first chapter of genesis and in the memphis theology found in chapters 20 and 23 of frankfurt's ancient egyptian religion creation proceeds from chaos to order by definite and gradual steps showing design and purpose in nature and suggesting that it must be the work of a divine intelligence the dates of these sources carry us far back into antiquity many centuries before the time of aristotle between 2000 and 5000 bc we are also told that in addition to the theological concept aristotle introduced the concept of the quote unmoved mover end quote in order to prove the existence of god but the quote unmoved mover is none other than the atom of the memphis theology of the egyptians the demiurge through whose command logos four pairs of gods were created out of different parts of his body and who accordingly moved out of him this act of creation took place while atum remained unmoved as he embraced patta thus the family of nine gods was created and has been named the any it is quite clear that the concept of the unmoved mover is derived from the egyptian theological or mystery system and not from aristotle as the modern world has made us believe incidentally but no less important it might be mentioned here that in this story of the created gods by atom the sun god and to a family of nine i.e the enid we have the original source of two important scientific hypotheses of modern times one there are nine major planets and two the sun is the parent of the other planets this latter being supported by the nebular hypothesis let us remember also that a the worship of the planets began in egypt and b the egyptian temples were the first observatories of history c in attempting to prove the existence of god or a first cause by reference to actuality or potentiality aristotle simply followed the traditional custom of the ancients who used the principle of opposites in order to explain the functions of nature d plato used it through the theory of ideas to explain the real and unreal in the phenomena of nature e socrates used it in order to establish the fact of immortality by showing that the death of one form of life of existing things is but the beginning of another form of life of these things in other words life is perpetual it only changes its forms in its course of progress democritus apply the principle of opposites in their interpretation of a particular phase of reality we cannot therefore consider aristotle's use of the terms actuality and potentiality in the problem of the existence of god as a new method of interpretation furthermore aristotle's review of the doctrines of all previous philosophers including plato together with his exposure of their errors and inconsistencies shows that he had become confident not only of the fact that he was in possession of a new and correct knowledge one that had not been before made available to the greeks but also that he could then speak with great authority right here i must say that i am convinced that aristotle represents a culture gap of 5 000 years or more between his civilization innovation and the greek level of civilization because it is impossible to escape the conviction that he obtained his education in books from a nation outside of greece the egyptians who were far in advance of the culture of greeks of his day three the doctrine of the origin of the world according to the doctrine that has been ascribed to aristotle because matter motion and time are eternal therefore the world is also eternal he plainly accepts and repeats a doctrine which has also been ascribed to democritus 400 bc whose victim we are all quite familiar with ex nelhilo niho fitz nothing comes out of nothing and consequently matter or the world must always have existed but the antiquity of the doctrine of the eternal nature of matter takes us back to the creation story of the memphis theology of the egyptians in which chaos is represented by the primeval ocean none out of which there arose the prime primeval hill to genuine under these circumstances we cannot give aristotle credit for the authorship of this doctrine in addition to the false authorship that has been attributed to aristotle he contradicts himself in his physics 8 1 25 when he also speaks of the world as caused a thing cannot be eternal and infinite and at the same time finite for the doctrine of the attributes of nature aristotle defines nature as that which possesses the principle of motion and rests and also adds that the motion is an effort to move from the less perfect to the more perfect by a definite law supposedly what we would today call evolution as we examine this definition we find that aristotle has only applied the principle of opposites to explain one of the modes by which nature has revealed herself just as he has done in his attempt to explain being in the dual terms of actuality and potentiality but change in motion permanence and rest were by no means new problems at the time of aristotle since they appear to have been investigated not only by parmenides zeno and malicious but also by democritus who stressed the notion of permanence in his famous dictum ex nihilo nihil fit out of nothing nothing comes implying thereby that nature is permanent and eternal similarly his reference to nature's movement from the less perfect to the more perfect was by no means a new discovery of the principle of nature the creation account found in the first chapter of genesis speaks of the gradual development of life in which the demiurge or logos was engaged at work during six stages and rested on the seventh similarly the creation account of the egyptians found in the memphis theology also speaks of nature's movement from chaos to order these accounts by many thousand years and to date aristotle's time for the former is about 2000 bc while the latter 4000 bc and since the principle of opposites has already been shown to originate from the egyptians as well as that of the gradual development of life it is clear that this doctrine on the attributes of nature did not originate from aristotle five the soul according to aristotle the soul possesses the following attributes one identity with body as form with matter the two the power which a living body possesses i.e the radical principle of life manifesting itself in the following attributes a sensitive b rational c nutritive d repetitive e locomotive the description of the soul by aristotle seems to vary somewhat from the more familiar and current ideas held by the atomists on the one hand and socrates plato and the pythagoreans on the other for a while the former believed that the soul is material and is composed of fire atoms the latter regarded it as a harmony of the body and a blending of opposites naturally we are now forced to ask the question did this doctrine of the soul originate from aristotle it is clear that he did not get it from his teacher plato nor from the pythagoreans and atomists but from some other source outside of greece as we turn our attention to ancient history we happily discover that there are two such sources outside of greece one the creation story in genesis first chapter and two the egyptian book of the dead which does not only contain attributes of the soul identical with those mentioned by aristotle but far more in an elaborate system of philosophy in which human nature is explained as a unity of non-inseparable parts consisting of different bodies and souls interdependent one upon another the physical body being one of them the egyptian book of the dead by sir e a budge introduction pages 29 to 64. in the genesis story it is asserted that god made man out of matter i.e the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and quote man became a living soul here we have a clear statement of the identity of body and soul taken from a document genesis which antidates aristotle by many centuries in the egyptian book of the dead we also find that the human soul is composed of the following nine inseparable parts one the car which is an abstract personality of the man to whom it belongs possessing the form and attributes of a man with power of locomotion omnipresence and ability to receive nourishment like a man it is equivalent to idle line i.e image to the cops i.e the concrete personality the physical body which is mortal three the ba i.e the heart soul which dwells in the car and sometimes alongside it in order to supply it with air and food it has the power of metamorphosis and changes its form at will for the arb i.e the heart the animal life in man and is rational spiritual and ethical it is associated with the bar heart soul and in the egyptian judgment drama it undergoes examination in the presence of osiris the great judge of the unseen world five the kai bit i.e shadow it is associated with ba heart soul from whom like the car it receives its nourishment it has the power of locomotion and omnipresence six the cool i.e spiritual soul which is immortal it is also closely associated with the ba heart soul and is an ethereal being seven the sahu i.e spiritual body in which the cool or spiritual soul dwells in it all the mental and spiritual attributes of the natural body are united to the new powers of its own nature e the second i.e power or the spiritual personification of the vital force in man its dwelling place is in the heavens with the spirits or koos nine the red i.e the name or the essential attribute for the preservation of a being the egyptians believed that in the absence of a name an individual ceased to exist it must be noted that according to the egyptian concept one the soul has nine parts whose unity is so complete that even the ren i.e the name is an essential attribute since without it it cannot exist two the ba or heart soul is connected with the car kaibit and arb abstract personality or shadow and animal life on the one hand and also with cool and secure spiritual soul and spiritual personification of vital force on the other hand as the power of nourishment three the sahu is a spiritual body which is used both by cool and second for the cot i.e the physical body is essential to the soul while manifesting itself upon the physical plane five the soul has the additional following attributes a omnipresence b metamorphosis c locomotion d nutritive e mortality f immortality g rationality h spirituality i morality j ethyl k shadowy six it is clear therefore from such a comparison as this that the aristotelian doctrine of the soul is identical and coincides with only a very small portion of the egyptian philosophy of the soul which therefore stands in relation to it as a whole to its part consequently we must conclude that aristotle obtained his doctrine of the soul from the egyptian book of the dead directly or indirectly b the library at alexandria alexandria was the true source of aristotle's large numbers of books it is to be expected that the library of alexandria was immediately ransacked and looted by alexander and his party no doubt made up of aristotle and others who did not only carry off large quantities of scientific books but also frequently returned to alexandria for the purpose of research just as these books were captured in egypt by the army of alexander and fell into the hands of aristotle so after aristotle's death these very books were destined to be captured by a roman army and conveyed to rome according to the following story taken from the histories of strabo and plutarch the books of aristotle fell into the hands of theo fastest who succeeded him as head of his school at the death of threo frastus they were bequeathed to nilis of skepsis after the death of nilis the books were hidden in a cellar where they remained for almost two centuries when athens was captured by the romans in 84 bc the books were captured by sulla and carried to rome where tyrannio a grammarian secured copies and enabled andronicus of rhodes to publish them the fragmentary character of aristotle's writings and their lack of unity revealed the fact that he himself made notes horridly from books while doing his research at the great egyptian library the ancient teaching method was oral not by lecture and note taking right here i must repeat that i am convinced that aristotle represents a culture gap of 5 000 years between his innovation and the greek level of civilization because it is impossible to escape the conviction that he obtained his education and books from a nation outside of greece who was far ahead of the culture of the greeks of his day and that was the egyptians the so-called books of aristotle deal with scientific knowledge which was not in circulation among the greeks and consequently it was impossible as has already been stated for him to have purchased them from other so-called greek philosophers it is for the purpose of concealing the true source of his books and of his education that history tells the very strange stories about aristotle a that he spent 20 years as a pupil under plato whom we know was incompetent to teach him and b that alexander the great also gave him money to buy the large number of books to which his name has been attached but at the same time fails to tell us when where and from whom aristotle bought the books furthermore as already pointed out aristotle's review of the doctrines of all previous philosophers including plato together with his exposure of their errors and inconsistencies shows that he had become confident not only of the fact that he was in possession of correct knowledge one that had not before been made available to the greeks but also that he could then speak with great authority b the lack of uniformity between the list of books points to doubtful authorship one there are at least three lists of books one list is said to be aristotle's own classification of his writings and naturally it must be dated within the period of his own lifetime 384 to 322 bc in this list aristotle has told the world that he wrote text on a mathematics physics and theology b ethics economics and politics and c poetry art and rhetoric now in order to write these texts one must have received his education and training in the subjects on which they are written we are told in the history of greek philosophy that socrates taught plato in that plato taught aristotle but there is no evidence that socrates ever taught mathematics or economics or politics consequently it was impossible for him to teach plato these subjects and also impossible for plato to teach aristotle these subjects under the egyptian mystery system which was graded and which required proof of efficiency before promotion we are therefore unable to accept the claim of aristotle to have been the author of those books two two lists are derived from different sources and the two together differ widely in a number b subject matter and c date the list of hermits the alexandrine 200 bc contains 400 books the list compiled by ptolemus between first and second centuries a d contains one thousand books the very fact that there is no uniformity in the list points to a doubtful authorship also if aristotle in 200 bc had only 400 books by what miracle did they increased to 1 000 in the second century a.d or was it forgery see the discrepancies and doubts in his life one he weighs 20 years as a pupil under plato it is said that he went to plato at the age of 19 and spent 20 years with him as a pupil but this is doubtful and unreasonable doubtful because plato is regarded as a philosopher while aristotle as a scientist who has been credited with all the scientific knowledge of the ancient world and it is impossible for a master to teach a pupil what he himself does not know it is also unreasonable to accept expect a man who has been credited with aristotle's knowledge to waste 20 of the best years of his life under a master who was incompetent to teach him two the truth of how he got such a large number of books is misrepresented he is said to have received financial aid from alexander the great and was able to purchase a large number of books in order to advance his studies but this sounds more like a fable than the truth for up to the time of aristotle greek education was represented by the sophists who taught rhetoric and dialectics while the study of elementary science was confined to a few unknown philosophers this was the standard of greek education for the sophists were the only authorized teachers yet aristotle is credited with producing a thousand different books dealing with all branches of the scientific knowledge of antiquity certainly he could not have obtained them from the greeks for that vast body of knowledge which bears his name and which was presented as new would really have been the traditional common possession of all who were members of the greek schools of philosophy for they would have been the only persons inside greece permitted to own such books for knowledge was protected as secret under these circumstances it is evident that the vast body of scientific knowledge ascribed to aristotle was neither in the possession of the greeks of his time nor was there any one in greece competent to teach him science and least of all are so vast a scale three he got the books by looting the library of alexandria the question must now be asked how did aristotle a single individual come to possess such a vast number of scientific works a body of knowledge which took the ancient world 5 000 years or more to accumulate it is evident that aristotle's fame as a scholar has been grossly exaggerated for such an accomplishment would have been both a physical and mental impossibility throughout the intellectual advancement of men the world has witnessed many a genius but those have always been specialists in particular fields not specialists in every branch of science and the modern world is no exception four our great men of science are not specialists in every branch of science but only in a particular one that appears to be nature's way as a matter of fact the many discrepancies and doubts in the life and activities of aristotle lead us to the only reasonable solution of the problem that instead of the tales a that alexander the great gave him money to buy books be that he spent 20 years of his life as a pupil with plato and see that he left the palace of alexander for athens when alexander started on his egyptian invasion he on the contrary must have spent a large part of those 20 years under the tudorship of the egyptian priest and also must have accompanied alexander on the egyptian invasion which gave him the opportunity not only to carry away from the alexandrian library the vast number of books which are now said to be his but also to copy notes from a large number of volumes indeed modern scholarship has shown that the writings of aristotle bear all the marks of hurriedly copy notes which of course suggest that aristotle himself copied these notes from the books of the alexandrian library the historical account of aristotle's life is incredible 4. it was the custom of ancient armies to capture books as valuable war booty when a victorious army takes possession of a country it is customary for special companies to search for and seize war booty i.e to help themselves to everything that is considered valuable the greeks among all the surrounding nations were the most anxious to obtain the valuable secrets of the egyptians in the ancient sciences and it would appear that the greatest opportunity came to them to accomplish the desire when alexander the great invaded egypt as stated elsewhere ancient invading armies looted libraries because of the great value attached to books and temples were also looted not only for books but also for the gold and silver out of which the gods and ceremonial vessels were made end of chapter 6 chapter 7 the curriculum of the egyptian mystery system one the education of the egyptian priests according to their orders from diodorus herodotus and clement of alexandria we learned that there were six orders of egyptian priests and that each order had to master a certain number of the books of hermes clement has described a procession of the priest calling them by their order and stating their qualifications as follows first comes the singer otis bearing an instrument of music he has to know by heart two of the books of hermes one containing the hymns of the gods and the other the allotment of the king's life next comes the horoscopes carrying in his hand a horologium or sundial and a palm branch the symbols of astronomy he has to know four of the books of hermes which deal with astronomy next comes the hyrule gramet with feathers on his head and a book in his hand and a rectangular case with writing materials i.e the writing ink and the reed he has to know the hieroglyphics cosmography geography astronomy the topography of egypt the sacred utensils and measures the temple furniture and the lands next comes the stolistes carrying the cubit of justice and the libation vessels he has to know the books of hermes that deal with the slaughter of animals next comes the prophets carrying the vessel of water followed by those who carry the loaves the prophets is the president of the temple and has to know the ten books which are called hieratic and contain the laws and doctrines concerning the gods secret theology and the whole education of the priest the books of hermes are 42 in number and are absolutely necessary 36 of them have to be known by the orders which proceed and contain the whole philosophy of the egyptians the remaining six books must be known by the order of pastor for i these are medical books and deal with physiology male and female diseases anatomy drugs and instruments the books of hermes were well known to the ancient world and were known to clement of alexandria who lived at the beginning of the 3rd century a.d in addition to the education contained in the 42 books of hermes the priest gained considerable knowledge from the selection and examination of sacrificial victims and a strict bodily purity which their priestly office imposed in addition to the hierogrammet and horoscopes who were skilled in theology and hieroglyphics a priest was also a judge and an interpreter of the law this led to a select tribunal which made the egyptian priest the custodian of every kind of literature we are also told that the science of statistics was cultivated to the greatest perfection among the egyptian priests two the education of the egyptian priests in a the seven liberal arts b secret systems of languages and mathematical symbolism c magic a the education of the egyptian priest in the seven liberal arts as has already been pointed out in connection with plato and the cardinal virtuals the egyptian mysteries were the center of organized culture and the recognized source of education in the ancient world neophytes were graded according to their moral efficiency and intellectual competence and had to submit to many years of tests and ordeals in order that their eligibility for advancement might be determined their education included the seven liberal arts and the virtues the virtues were not mere abstractions or ethical sentiments but positive valors and the verbality of the soul beyond these the priests entered upon a course of specialization b the education of the egyptian priest consisted also in the specialization in secret systems of language and mathematical symbolism one it would appear that there were two forms of writing and use among the egyptians a the demotic believed to have been introduced by pharaoh semiticus for trade and commercial purposes and b the hieroglyphics of which there were two forms i.e the hieroglyphics proper and the hierarchic a linear form both of which were used only by the priest in order to conceal the secret and mystical meaning of their doctrines two we are also informed that the mystery system of egypt employed molds of spoken language which could be understood only by the initiated these consisted not only of myths and parables but also of a secret language called senzar three we also understand that the egyptians attached numerical values both to letters of words and to geometrical figures with the same intention as with their use of hieroglyphics i.e to conceal their teachings it is further understood that the egyptian numerical and geometrical symbolism were contained in the 42 books of hermes whose system was the oldest and most elaborate repository of mathematical symbolism here again we are reminded of the source of the number philosophy of pythagoras see the education of the egyptian priest consisted also in the specialization in magic according to herodotus the egyptian priests possessed supernatural powers for they had been trained in the esoteric philosophy of the greater mysteries and were experts in magic they had the power of controlling the minds of men hypnosis the power of predicting the future prophecy and the power over nature i.e the power of gods by giving commands in the name of the divinity and accomplishing great deeds herodotus also tells us that the most celebrated oracles of the ancient world were located in egypt hercules at canopus apollo at apollonopolis magna and jupiter at thebes and ammonium and that the greek oracles were egyptian imitations here it might be well to mention that the egyptian priest was the first genuine priest of history who exercised control over the laws of nature here it might also be well to mention that the egyptian book of the dead is a book of magical formulae and instructions intended to direct the fate of the departed soul it was the prayer book of the mystery system of egypt and the egyptian priests received training in post-mortem conditions and the methods of their verification three a comparison of the curriculum of the egyptian mystery system with the lists of books attributed to aristotle a the curriculum the curriculum of the egyptian mystery system consisted of the following subjects one the severan liberal arts which formed the foundation training for all neophytes and included grammar arithmetic rhetoric and dialectic i.e the quadrillium and geometry astronomy and music i.e the trivium 2 the sciences of the 42 books of hermes in addition to the foundation training prescribed for all neophytes those who sought holy orders had to be versed in the books of hermes and according to clement of alexandria their orders and subjects were as follows a the singer or otis who must know two books of hermes dealing with music i.e the hymns of the gods b the horoscopes who must know four books of hermes dealing with astronomy see the hierogrammet who must know the hieroglyphics cosmography geography astronomy and the topography of egypt and land surveying d the stolistis who must know the books of hermes that deal with slaughter of animals and the process of embalming e the prophet is who is the president of the temple and must know ten books of hermes dealing with higher esoteric theology on the whole education of priests f the pasto four eye who must know six books of hermes which are medical books dealing with physiology the diseases of male and female anatomy drugs and instruments three the sciences of the monuments pyramids temples libraries obelisk sphynxis idols architecture masonry carpentry engineering sculpture metallurgy agriculture mining and forestry art drawing and painting for the secret sciences numerical symbolism geometrical symbolism magic the book of the dead myth and parables five the social order and its protection the priests of egypt were also lawyers judges officials of government businessmen and sailors and captains hence they must have been trained in economics civics law government statistics census taking navigation ship building military science the manufacture of chariots and horse breeding if we compare 3a with 3b which immediately follows we would discover that the curriculum of the egyptian mystery system covered a much wider range of scientific subjects than those of aristotle's list which it includes note also that the seven liberal arts the quadrivium and trivium originated from the egyptian mysteries b aristotle's list of books prepared by himself one aristotle was said to have prepared a list of books in the following order one theoretic whose purpose was truth and which included a mathematics b physics and c theology two practical whose purpose was usefulness and which included ethics economics politics and three poetic or productive whose purpose was beauty and which included poetry art and rhetoric an examination and comparison of three a with three b show that a the curriculum of the egyptian mystery school included all the scientific and philosophic subjects credited to the authorship of aristotle b the books attributed to aristotle's authorship cannot be disassociated from egyptian origin as elsewhere referred to both through the plunder of the royal library of alexandria and through research carried on at the center by aristotle himself as has been mentioned elsewhere the writings of aristotle are disputed by modern scholarship and i feel more justified in making the comparison between the curriculum of the mystery system and the list said to be drawn up by aristotle himself rather than with the notorious list of 1000 books whose subjects are nevertheless included under the curriculum of the egyptian mystery system end of chapter 7. chapter 8 the memphis theology is the basis of all important doctrines in greek philosophy history and description the men fight theology is an inscription on a stone now kept in the british museum it contains the theological cosmological and philosophical views of the egyptians it has already been referred to in my treatment of plato's doctrines but it must be repeated here to show its full importance as the basis of the entire field of greek philosophy it is dated 700 bc and bears the name of an egyptian pharaoh who stated that he had copied an inscription of his ancestors this statement is verified by language and typical arrangement of the text and therefore assigns the original date of the memphis theology to a very early period of egyptian history i.e the time when the first dynasties had made their new capital at memphis the city of the god i.e between 4 000 and 3500 bc the text this consists of three supplementary parts each of which will be treated separately both as regards its teachings and the identity in greek philosophy part one presents the gods of chaos part 2 presents the gods of order and arrangement in creation and part 3 presents the primate of the gods or the god of gods through whose logos creation was accomplished in part one pre-creation or chaos is represented as follows a text of part one the primate of the gods pata conceived in his heart everything that exists and by his utterance created them all he is first to emerge from the prime evil waters of none in the form of a primeval hill closely following the hill the god atom also emerges from the waters and sits upon patta the hill there remain in the waters four pairs of male and female gods the ardold or unity of eight gods bearing the following names one nun and nor net i.e the prime evil waters and the counter heaven to her and jorge i.e the boundless and its opposite three cook and corquette i.e darkness and its opposite and the hidden and its opposite be the philosophy of part one one battal has the following attributes a the primate of the gods i.e the god of gods be the logos thought and creative utterance and power see the god of order and form the the divine artificer and potter it must be noted that while the sun god adam sits upon pata the primeval hill he accomplishes the work of creation but the men fight theology dates back to 4000 bc when it is believed the greeks were unknown the arrangement in the memphis theology could only mean that the ingredients of the primeval chaos contained ten principles four pairs of opposite principles together with two other gods tah representing mind thought and creative utterance while atom joins himself to tah and acts as a demi urge and executes the work of creation from such an arrangement in the cosmos we are in position to infer the following philosophies a water is the source of all things b creation was accomplished by the unity of two creative principles i.e the unity of mind news with logos creative utterance atom was the demiurge or intermediate god in creation he was also sun god or fire god d opposite principles control the life of the universe e the elements in creation were fire atom water part one of the memphis theology is the correct source of these philosophies but strangely the greeks have claimed them as their productions although without any right whatever see individual greek philosophers to whom portions of the philosophy of the men fight theology has been assigned of these doctrines water as the source of all things has been assigned to dallas that of the boundless or unlimited has been assigned to an axe commander while that of air as the basis of life has been assigned to anixmanis furthermore the doctrine that fire underlies the life of the universe has been assigned not only to pythagoras who spoke of the functions of the central and peripheral fires but also to heracletus who spoke of the transmutation of fire into the other elements and their transmutation back into fire also democritus who spoke of fire atoms as filling space as the mind or soul of the world and plato who spoke of a world soul which is composed of fire atoms likewise the doctrine of opposites has been assigned not only to pythagoras who spoke of the elements of the unit as odd and even but also to a who spoke of the unity of warring opposites b parmenides who spoke of the distinction between being and not being c socrates who spoke of things as being generated from their opposites and d plato who spoke of ideas and nomina as real and perfect but phenomena as unreal and imperfect furthermore the doctrines of the noose or mind or an intelligent agency as responsible for creation has been assigned not only to anaxia gloris but also to socrates who spoke of the existence of useful things as the work of an intelligence to plato who spoke of a world soul or mind as the cause of life and knowledge in the universe and to democritus who attached a similar meaning the doctrine of the logos has been assigned to heracletus who spoke of fire as the logos or creative principle in nature while the doctrine of the demiurge or an intermediate god who created the world has been assigned to plato a text of part two the gods of order and arrangement in the cosmos are represented by nine gods in one godhead called the enid here atum the source of the ag duad is also retained as the source of the gods of order and arrangement atum names four pairs of parts of his own body and thus creates eight gods who together with himself become nine these eight gods are the created gods the first creatures of this world and at whom to create a god the demiurge of whom plato spoke the gods whom atom projected from his body were one shoe air two tefnuts moisture three gab earth and four nut sky who are said to have given birth to four other gods five osiris the god of omnipotence and omniscience six isis wife of osiris female principal seven seth the opposite of good eight nepties female principle in the unseen world b the philosophy of part two as we read the text of part two we find that the sun god atum who was present in the chaos was also present at the development of orderly arrangement in the cosmos at this stage atum assumes the role of creator of all gods except pata the god of gods he next proceeds to accomplish this special type of creation in the following manner he commands eight gods to proceed from his own body according to the names of those eight parts the result of this creation presents us with what has been called a the aniod or the unity of nine gods and one godhead be the doctrine of the demiurge as in part one see the doctrine of the created gods and d the doctrine of the unmoved mover also e the doctrine of opposites and f omnipotence and omniscience of these doctrines that of the aniad will be dealt with elsewhere and since the doctrine of the demiurge has already been treated together with see the created gods i shall now discuss the doctrine of the unmoved mover as based upon the same act of creation according to the memphis theology of the egyptians atum created eight gods who proceeded from the eight parts of his own body he was seated upon pata the hill and was unmoved and this act of creation at tomb became the unmoved mover in spite of the memphis theology being the direct source of these doctrines yet plato has been given credit for the doctrine of the created gods while aristotle has received credit for that of the unmoved mover certainly the world has never been more misled here it must be made quite clear that the doctrine of a demiurge in creation includes two other doctrines that of the created gods and that of the unmoved mover it was the function of the demiurge to create the universe and in doing so his first act was the creation of the gods who accordingly became the first creatures but the manner in which the demiurge created the gods was the process of projecting them from his own body this method of creation clearly makes the demiurge the unmoved mover however the history of greek philosophy has assigned the authorship of the doctrines of the demiurge and the created gods to plato and the authorship of the doctrine of the unmoved mover to aristotle but this so-called platonic doctrine is one made up of three inseparable parts a the demiurge b the function of the demiurge and c the method of the function a unity which contradicts aristotle's authorship of what is really only an inference from the supposed original doctrine of plato the doctrine of opposites has already been discussed however in part one of the memphis theology one of the pairs of created gods osiris and isis was used to represent the male and female principles of nature in addition to this osiris had other qualities attached to him which might be understood from the following derivatives a ash meaning many and b eri meaning to do and also see meaning and i consequently osiris came to me not only many eyed or omniscient but also omnipotent or all-powerful here again as in all instances already mentioned in spite of the fact that memphis theology is the source of greek philosophy yet the doctrines of an intelligent cause a noose as responsible for the life and conduct of the world has been assigned to anaxagoras socrates and also plato whose world soul consisted of fire atoms like the world soul of democritus a text of part three in this third part of the memphis theology the primate of the gods is represented as pita thoughts logos and creative power which are exercised over all creatures he transmits power and spirit to all gods and controls the lives of all things animals and men through his thought and commands in other words it is him that all things live move and have their being be the philosophy of part three from part 3 we infer the following doctrines a all things were created by the thought and command of the god of gods be through the thought and command of tau we all live move and have our eternal being see pata is creator and preserver as has already been pointed out elsewhere but todd's powers were transmitted by magical means to atum who performed the work of creation two men fight theology is the source of modern scientific knowledge a the anion and the nebular hypothesis be the identity between the sun god atum and the atom of science a the eniad and the nebular hypothesis go inside just as the memphis theology is the source of greek philosophy or primitive science so it is also the basis of modern scientific belief the gods of order and arrangement in the cosmos are represented by nine gods in the godhead called the eniad at whom the sun god i.e fire god creates eight other gods by naming four pairs of parts of his own body from which they came forth here the names of the created gods were given as shoe and teffnet air and moisture gab and nut earth and sky and two other pairs of opposites osiris and isis and seth and nephews who are supposed to be the first creatures of this world now if we compare this egyptian cosmology with the nebular hypothesis of laplace we would find very striking similarities in the two contexts according to the nebular hypothesis our present solar system was once a molten gaseous nebula this nebula rotated at an enormous speed and as the mass cooled down it also contracted and developed greater speed the result was a bulging at the equator and a gradual breaking off of gaseous rings which formed themselves into planets these planets in turn threw off gaseous rings would form themselves into smaller bodies until at last the sun was left as the remnant of the original parent nebula from this context it is clear that the original parent nebula was fire or the sun and that by throwing off parts of itself it created some planets which in turn threw off parts of themselves and created others according to the context of the memphis theology the creator god was the sun god or fire god who named four pairs of parts of his own body from which gods came forth but at tomb together with the eight created gods composed that anyhead or a godhead of nine a very striking similarity with modern science which teaches that there are nine major planets we may now summarize these similarities a the creator god in both the egyptian and modern cosmologies is the sun or fire be the creator god in both cosmologies creates gods from parts of himself see the number of gods are nine and correspond with the nine major planets these similarities make it evident that laplace obtained his hypothesis from the memphis theology or other egyptian sources of course the memphis theology according to frankfurt in his intellectual adventure of ancient man page 54 does not mention the creation of planets nevertheless since it was the method of the egyptian to conceal the truth by the youths of myth parables magical principles number philosophy and hieroglyphics we can easily see what methods might be involved before we could arrive at a better translation of the memphis theology at any rate the entire setting of the memphis theology is astronomical and what could be more natural than to expect an astronomical interpretation it seems well within reason to regard the aniad as the heliocentric system of history atom the sun god creating eight other gods or planets from his own body as the unmoved mover a teaching which has been falsely attributed to aristotle b the identity between the egyptian sun god atom and the atom of modern science there are two things which i desire to point out in connection with the relationship between atum the egyptian sun god and the atom of modern signs these things are one the similarity of attributes and two the similarity of names one the egyptian god at tomb means self-created everything and nothing a combination of positive and negative principles all inclusiveness and emptiness a demi urge possessing creative powers the creator son atom also means the all and the not yet being as a god atom represents the principles of opposites the atom as the substratum of matter according to greek philosophy is defined by democritus as movement of that which is within that which is not it therefore represents the principle of opposites and shows the identity between the egyptian sun god and the substratum of matter furthermore the atom is defined as the full and void being and not being and these definitions coincide with the everything and nothing and the all-inclusiveness and emptiness of the egyptian sun god two the similarity of names shared by the egyptian sun god and the adam of science now with reference to the similarity of these two names the first thing we should bear in mind is the fact that they both possess identical attributes as has already been pointed out in section one and consequently we are compelled to conclude that the atom of science is the identical name of the egyptian sun god the most ancient of the gods except pata who was present with atom at creation the second thing we should bear in mind is the fact that the name of the god atom belongs to the cosmology of the memphis theology whose date goes back to 4000 bc when the greeks were not even known consequently we are compelled to conclude that the greeks obtained both the original name and the attributes of the sun god atom from the egyptians furthermore the greeks were unacquainted with the egyptian language during the period of the so-called greek philosophy dating from the 6th century bc and as a consequence transliterated egyptian words into greek without regard to their coptic derivatives the following homeric stories verify the practice of the greeks in their transliteration of egyptian words and the plagiarism of their legend a according to homer proteus was a maritime divinity feeding his 4k on the coast of egypt he was endowed with a gift of prophecy which was exercised only upon compulsion proteus however was an egyptian pharaoh who succeeded to the throne on the death of pharaon the son of cesarestrus proteus was also worshipped at memphis the greeks did not only transliterate the name of this egyptian king but also plagiarized on the legend b likewise the story of isle the archived princess who was changed into a heifer and after long wanderings reached egypt where she gave birth to a god and where she herself was worshipped as the goddess isis points clearly to the introduction of the worship of isis or ethor under the symbol of the heifer at an early period into argos here it must be pointed out that io is the coptic name for moon and the same word was preserved as the dialect of argos without any affinity with any greek root it was a habit of the greeks to hellenize egyptian words by transliterating them and adding them to the greek vocabulary see this practice of borrowing words from nearby nations continued unto new testament times in acts of apostles of the greek testament chapter 13 and verse 1 the word niger i.e black man in the name simeon the negro is a roman or latin word niger nigram meaning black simeon of course was an egyptian professor attached to the church at rome the atom of science is really the name of the egyptian sun god that has come down to modern times through the so-called greek philosophy and carries identical attributes with the sun god it must be remembered that what we erroneously call greek philosophy was the beginning of science or the investigation of nature and consequently we cannot separate modern science from greek philosophy three modern me memphis theology opens great possibilities for modern scientific research a greek concept of the atom erroneous the greeks derived the meaning of the atom from alpha i.e a negative prefix meaning not and to tem then i.e the present infinitive active of terminal to cut the two derivatives together meaning that which cannot be cut for centuries the world has been misled by this misconception of the greeks a fact which no doubt had impeded the progress of atomic research by western scholars who had believed in the so-called greek origin of philosophy or primitive science today however the greek conception of the atom is no longer tenable since modern science has successfully split the atom b great scientific secrets in the memphis theology yet to be discovered i believe that the time has come within which man will be able to unlock most of the secrets of nature hitherto hidden and unknown i have shown that the nebular hypothesis of modern times coincides with the teachings of the memphis theology in which the sun god atum is said to have created eight other gods which together with himself constitute the anti-ad of the egyptians which correspond to the nine major planets of modern scientific teaching we also know that out of the cosmic chaos their roles from the primeval waters a pair of gods i.e the primeval hill and atum the sun god and that through the contact of adam with the hill he received power to create the other eight major planets this seems to imply that one atomic energy originates from water and earth since water h2o and uranium an indispensable ingredient in atomic energy is found in the bowels of the earth note that both atom and the hill came out of the primeval waters two four pairs of gods representing positive and negative principles still remain in the water in the form of male and female frogs and snakes and constitutes four-fifths of the secrets of creation which man has yet to fathom three successful scientific research in the principles and secrets of nature lies in the study of the men fight theology whose symbology requires the key of magical principles for its interpretation with this approach our men of science should be able to unlock the doors of the secrets of nature and become the custodians of unlimited knowledge this is the legacy of the african continent to the nations of the world she has laid the cultural foundations of modern progress and therefore she and her people deserve the honor and praise which for centuries have been falsely given to the greeks and likewise it is the purpose of this book to make this revelation the beginning of a universal reformation in race relations which i believe would be the beginning of the solution of the problem of universal unrest end of chapter eight chapter nine social reformation through the new philosophy of african redemption now that it has been shown that philosophy and arts and sciences were bequeathed to civilization by the people of north africa and not by the people of greece the pendulum of praise and honor is due to shift from the people of greece to the people of the african continent who are the rightful heirs of such praise and honor this is going to mean a tremendous change in world opinion an attitude for all people and races who accept the new philosophy of african redemption i.e the truth that the greeks were not the authors of greek philosophy but the people of north africa would change their opinion from one of disrespect to one of respect for the black people throughout the world and treat them accordingly it is also going to mean a most important change in the mentality of the black people they change from an inferiority complex to the realization and consciousness of their equality with all the other great peoples of the world who have built great civilizations with this change in the mentality of the black and white people great changes are also expected in their respective attitudes toward each other and in society as a whole in the drama of greek philosophy there are three actors who have played distinct parts namely alexander the great who by an act of aggression invaded egypt in 333 bc and ransacked and looted the royal library at alexandria and together with his companions carried off a booty of scientific philosophic and religious books egypt was then stolen and annexed as a portion of alexander's empire but the invasion plan included far more than mere territorial expansion for it prepared the way and made it possible for the capture of the culture of the african continent this brings us to the second actor that is the school of aristotle whose students moved from athens to egypt and converted the royal library first into a research center and secondly into a university and thirdly compiled that vast body of scientific knowledge which they had gained from research together with the oral instructions which greek students have received from the egyptian priests into what they have called the history of greek philosophy in this way the greeks stole the legacy of the african continent and called it their own and as has already been pointed out the result of this dishonesty has been the creation of an erroneous world opinion that the african continent has made no contribution to civilization because her people are backward and low in intelligence and culture this erroneous opinion about the black people has seriously injured them through the centuries up to modern times in which it appears to have reached a climax in the history of human relations and now we come to the third actor and that is ancient rome who through the edicts of her emperors theodosius in the 4th century a.d and justinian in the 6th century a.d abolished the mysteries of the african continent that is the ancient culture system of the world the higher metaphysical doctrines of those mysteries could not be comprehended the spiritual powers of the priest were unsurpassed the magic of the rites and ceremonies filled the people with all egypt was the holy land of the ancient world and the mysteries were the one ancient and holy catholic religion whose powers were supreme this lofty culture system of the black people filled wrong with envy and consequently she legalized christianity which she had persecuted for five long centuries and set it up as a state religion and as a rival of mysteries its own mother this is why the mysteries have been despised this is why other ancient religions of the black people are despised because they are all offspring of the african mysteries which have never been clearly understood by europeans and consequently have provoked their prejudice and condemnation in keeping with the plan of emperors theodosius and justinian to exterminate and forever suppress the culture system of the african continents the christian church established its missionary enterprise to fight against what is has called paganism consequently missionaries and educators have gone to the mission field with a superiority complex born of miseducation and disrespect a prejudice which has made it impossible for them to accomplish the blessings which missionary enterprise might otherwise have accomplished for this reason missionary enterprise has been responsible for a positive injury against the african people which consists of the perpetual caricature of african culture and literature and exhibitions which provoke laughter and disrespect this then is only a brief summary of the parts played by the persons of the drama of greek philosophy and the resulting effects upon the black people this drama might be called the causa corsairum of the social plight of the peoples of african descent because it has made the white and black races not only common victims of a false racial tradition about the african continent but also partners in the solution of the problems of racial reformation i believe that a reformation of this kind is possible if the best minds of both racial groups cooperate and its accomplishment both groups have been the common victims of miseducation arising from a false tradition about the african continent and it has caused them to develop attitudes according to their common belief white people a superiority complex and the black people the corresponding inferiority complex and if we are to accomplish a reformation in race relations it is obvious that both racial groups must combine their efforts in the abandonment and destruction of that mentality which has plunged the black people into their social plight this i suggest should be done by a worldwide dissemination of the truth through a system of re-education in order to stimulate and encourage a change in the attitude of races toward each other in combining their efforts both races must not only preach and teach the truth that the mystery system of the african continent gave the world philosophy and religion and the arts and sciences but they must see to it that all false praise of the greeks be removed from the textbooks of our schools and colleges for this is the practice that has blindfolded the world and has laid the foundations for the deplorable race relations of the modern world a the name of pythagoras for instance should be deleted from our mathematical textbooks in geometry where the theorem of the square of the hypotenuse of a right angle triangle is called the pythagorean theorem because this is not true b we must point out to the world the deception in attaching the authorship of socrates to the precepts men know thyself and in attaching the authorship of plato to the four cardinal virtues since socrates obtained the self-knowledge precept from the egyptian temples where it was used as an inscription in plato reduced the 10 virtues of the north african mystery system to four see we must also prove to the world that the doctrines of the so-called greek philosophies originated from the ancient mystery system of north africa this proof has been set forth in chapters 5 to 8 of stolen legacy and in order to carry out our worldwide crusade we must recommend stolen legacy for adoption and study in the schools and colleges of both racial groups in our fraternities sororities and interracial groups in order that young and old of our present generation might all get to know the truth and be able to pass it on to future generations this i believe would be a very helpful method by which this process of re-education would become universal and effective in the creation of a much needed racial reformation the white people of our modern age cannot be regarded as wholly responsible for social conditions which are the result of false racial tradition it is this that makes race relations a challenge to the best minds of both racial groups to combine their efforts in this solution but our disturbed race relations have also another cause this i would say is both supplementary and intensive for the false tradition about the backwardness of the african continent created by alexander the great and aristotle school has been dramatized by missionary literature and exhibitions as the will of roman emperors and as a source of laughter and disrespect there is no doubt that this policy has created bitterness and dissatisfaction in the minds of natives who have been compelled to question the sincerity of the missionary in the meantime missionary enterprise gains the sympathy and support of a miseducated world in order to carry on this program what can we do to eradicate the second and more subtle evil the dramatization of a false tradition so as to make it appear as true i suggest that since the missionary dramatizes false tradition because he himself also believes it we should combine our efforts first of all in re-educating him so that he might know the truth and change his superiority complex which is responsible for his mistaken policy his re-education should not only consist of a thorough study of the ideas and arguments contained in my book stolen legacy but he must also be given special training in the language customs and ideals of africans in order to make him cultivate an attitude of respect for the culture of the african continent seemingly the oldest specimen to have been developed by mankind because that continent is the birthplace and the cradle of the ancient mysteries with their world enlightened as to the real truth about the place of the african continent and the history of civilization false tradition and belief should cease to be effective disrespect and prejudice should tend to disappear and race relations should tend to be normal and peaceful this brings us to the final problem the problem of african redemption the aims of stolen legacy are not only to stimulate a reformation in race relations and scientific research but also to cultivate race pride in the black people themselves and to offer them a new philosophy of african redemption as the modus operandi of achieving racial reformation this new philosophy of redemption consists of a simple proposition as follows the greeks were not the authors of greek philosophy but the black people of north africa the egyptians now in order to explain the value of this proposition three questions must be asked and answered a as a simple proposition what is its significance its significance lies in the fact that it is a statement of an important truth which is the exposure of greek dishonesty b why is this proposition called the philosophy a philosophy is an accepted belief and this proposition is a philosophy because it is offered as a belief worthy of acceptance see what is a philosophy of redemption a philosophy of redemption is not merely an accepted belief but a belief that is also lived in order to enjoy the benefits of his teaching this proposition will become a philosophy of redemption to all black people when they accept it as a belief and live up to it this brings us to our final question and that is how to live up to this philosophy of redemption in other words how shall the black people work out their own salvation from the outset my readers and co-workers in the solution of a common problem must be reminded that our philosophy of redemption is a psychological process involving a change in belief or mentality to be followed by corresponding change in behavior it really signifies a mental emancipation in which the black people will be liberated from the chain of traditional falsehood which for centuries has incarcerated them in the prison of inferiority complex and world humiliation and insult this mental emancipation or redemption it must be remembered as two functions it is general when on the one hand the phenomenon of our unwholesome race relations is regarded as a general problem needing a general emancipation of both races in order to affect a solution in this general sense emancipation transcends the limitations and boundaries of race and therefore includes the whole world white and black people since we are all victims of the same chain of the traditional falsehood that has incarcerated the modern world on the other hand emancipation or redemption is specific when we refer to the effects of the phenomenon or unwholesome race relations upon a black people it is freedom from such conditions that constitutes the specific function of emancipation or redemption we digressed someone in order to explain the terms philosophy and philosophy of redemption believing it to be necessary before proceeding to answer the next question how to live up to this new philosophy of redemption how must it be worked out being liberated from inferiority complex by their new philosophy of redemption which is destined to destroy the chain of false tradition which has incarcerated them the black people must face and interpret the world according to their new vision and philosophy throughout the centuries up to our modern times world conditions have been influenced by two phenomena which have affected human relations one the giving of false praise to the greeks a custom which appears to be an educational policy conducted by educational institutions this has led to the false worship of socrates plato and aristotle as intellectual gods in all the leading universities of the world and in support of this intellectual worship these institutions have also organized what are known as greek lettered fraternities and sororities as the symbols of the superiority of greek intellect and culture two the second phenomenon is missionary enterprise whereby the black people's culture has been caricatured in literature and exhibitions in such specimens as provoked disrespect and laughter never let us forget that the roman emperors theodosius and justinian were responsible for the abolition of the egyptian mysteries that is the culture system of the black people and also for the establishment of christianity for its perpetual suppression likewise never let us forget when we are reviewing this bit of history that the greeks call the egyptians hoy which meant black people and living up to their new philosophy of redemption the life of the black people would have to be one of counteraction against these two sets of conditions in the first place the black people must adopt a negative attitude toward this type of phenomenon because they have become fully aware that these phenomena are the result of a false tradition and therefore also partake of the nature of falsehood and insincerity in this negative attitude the black people of the world must shun the false tradition and must teach the truth which is their new philosophy of redemption this must be done in the home to young children in the colleges and schools to students from the pulpits and platforms to audiences and in the fraternities and sororities to young men and women this new philosophy of redemption being a revelation of truth in the history of black people's civilization must become a necessary portion of their education and must be taught for generations and centuries to come in order to fill them with inspiration and pride and liberate them from mental servitude in the second place in this negative attitude the black people must demonstrate dead disbelief in the false worship of greek intellect this should be done in the following three ways one they must discontinue the practice of quoting socrates plato and aristotle on their speeches as intellectual models because we know that their philosophy was stolen two they must relinquish membership from all greek letter fraternities and sororities and three they must abolish all greek letter fraternities and sororities from all colored colleges because they have been the source of the promotion of inferiority complex and of educating the black people against themselves we come now to the counteraction of the second set of phenomena the missionary activities in defamatory literature and exhibitions which provoke disrespect for and laughter at the black people just as in the first set of phenomena so is it in the second the black people must adopt a negative attitude in their attempt to live up to their philosophy of redemption of course they are perfectly well aware that the activities of missionaries are the result of their own miseducation through the medium of a false tradition among black people but since their problem is also one of emancipation from certain social evils the black people feel that they are entitled to a change in missionary policy for these reasons i suggest that the negative attitude of the black people should consist first of a boycott of missionary literature and exhibitions and secondly of a perpetual protest against these forms of missionary policy until a change is brought about for as long as missionary enterprise maintains its policy of militancy against african culture the black people will be disrespected this is the least that the black people are entitled to respectful treatments because they are the representatives of the oldest civilization in the world from which all other cultures have borrowed i have frequently seen in the parish magazines of some european churches pictures of the following description an african chief dressed in a new silk hat a long shirt but no trousers a frog coat and bare feet probably to provide amusement for the parishioners and to excite their pity this is what the black people must protest against and this is how they must live up to their philosophy of redemption and work it out in conclusion let us remember that the unfortunate position of the modern church and being associated with the drama of greek philosophy is excusable because her missionary function has been due to the erroneous mandates and edicts of secular princes and emperors who ruled the church when it was only a department of state this bit of ecclesiastical history should be well known to the early branches of the christian church and consequently they are the ones whom are enlightened age expects to initiate a change in missionary policy which would free themselves from the error and superstition of human relations this lead of the various branches of catholicism should be followed by protestantism so that the entire church of christ on earth should be united in this racial reformation and carry to the mission field a practical gospel of happiness that is happiness that must begin while we are here on earth a gospel that is interested in the total welfare of the people a gospel which ignores the social and economic rights of natives and emphasizes only happiness in an unknown world is one-sided misleading and contrary to christian tenets in practice it was early christianity that established a diaconate for the express purpose of solving the economic problems of its adherents so that they might begin in their earthly life to experience what happiness really meant it is evident that the benefits of religion are intended to be co-extensive with human needs and unless the christian religion changes its missionary policy with respect to the culture of the black people it would be difficult for them to obtain complete emancipation from the social injuries created by ancient rome end of chapter 9 end of stolen legacy greek philosophy is stolen egyptian philosophy by george [Music]